Falsities in Identity Creation

Falsities in Identity Creation

By Jason O’Neill

Image from: Wired.com sockpuppets-660x495

Since the beginning of the internet social media has been a fast spreading sensation. Social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and my personal favourite, Facebook have become a worldwide phenomenon. This is mainly due to the power the internet gives to the user to easily create their own identities with just a push of a button.

Facebook is a space which users come together to share the stories of their lives or share their opinions of subjects to the world. Each time a user posts to Facebook their identity is built up one bit at a time. This is done by how the readers of the post react to what they read. This is influenced by features visual representations like facial emoticons and pictures, layout of the post and the addition of how the user is feeling. However, as the post is public, the readers of the post can also shape the identity of the poster by commenting their piece of mind (Kuttainen, 2015). Yet, the readers are usually influenced by these features used by the user and their comment’s support the post and cement the image that was laid out.  

According to Taun, place is security, space is freedom (Taun, 1997). Facebook starts of by giving the users freedom to insert information as to who they are. The security is formed by the power given to the users to share to the world anything and everything they want as anyone they want to be. As talked about in Charles Selfie’s article, people hide behind fake personas as a way to shape others ideas on who we really are (Selfie, 2014). This links to Taun’s idea that the idea of space becoming a place through familiarity. Once others ideas of the user is shaped to how the user wants to be perceived then the state of familiarity is created; therefore, making the space of Facebook a place.

References

Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and place (p. 3). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Selfie, C. (2014). The weird reasons people make up false identities on the internet. Wired.

Kuttainen, V. (2015). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 2: Power. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Image Credits

Selfie, C. (2014). The weird reasons people make up false identities on the internet. Wired.