Comments on: I haz a nom http://www.victoriamacarthur.com/2009/01/20/i-haz-a-nom/ Personal Blog for Victoria Macarthur Fri, 10 Sep 2010 22:51:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Shanemcl http://www.victoriamacarthur.com/2009/01/20/i-haz-a-nom/comment-page-1/#comment-1774 Shanemcl Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:55:02 +0000 http://www.victoriamacarthur.com/?p=56#comment-1774 Saw your status update and thought I'd take a gander at the blog! Hmmm, the article you've just written seems largely an article about privacy, identity and the internet. There are a few issues here I can think of, which seem relevent: First off, there is the problem of 'identity theft'. This can occur whereby you leave enough breadcrumbs on the internet for someone to cross-correlate that information and build up a profile on you. Second off, as you know, identity in the 21st century has increasingly become 'individuated', whereby individuals construct the 'self' through-out their lives. What's important about posting information on the internet, is that it can leave a relic of your previous 'selves'. Thus, your past can constrain your identity 'construction'. Particularly when it can't be left behind. For example, archive.org has been archiving web pages on the internet for nearly 10 years now. This can be seen as both positive and negative. On a positive, it means you have to face all of your past realies. On a negative, it can give people (such as employers) a false sense of who you are 'now'; it can constrain you. Third Point, there is an issue with social networking sites, that individuals have too much 'control' around their online identity. Individuals can now put themselves in a position to be able to package their life online, and this online construction may not be 'holistically' representative of the integrated identity. It may represent a planned and controlled fragment of your identity, or even an entirely manufactured identity. At the other extreme, the fragments of identity that does lie on the internet, may result in people constructing a narrow and perhaps even false sense of who you are as an integrated identity. Final point, the solution to all this seems 3 fold. (1)Government policy with regards data protection (2)Responsibility and forsight with regard to website owners and content managers (3)Individual responsiblity, in terms of managing your online identity and maintaining a degree of foresight. Overall, it seems like there isn't a polarising solution. A balanced attitude to your identity and privacy on the internet seems the best approach. Individuals need to be vigilant and maintain foresight when posting information on the web. On the other-hand, individuals need to be attentive to how, 'controlled' and 'representative' that information on the web is of their 'integrated identity' Saw your status update and thought I’d take a gander at the blog! Hmmm, the article you’ve just written seems largely an article about privacy, identity and the internet. There are a few issues here I can think of, which seem relevent:

First off, there is the problem of ‘identity theft’. This can occur whereby you leave enough breadcrumbs on the internet for someone to cross-correlate that information and build up a profile on you.

Second off, as you know, identity in the 21st century has increasingly become ‘individuated’, whereby individuals construct the ’self’ through-out their lives. What’s important about posting information on the internet, is that it can leave a relic of your previous ’selves’. Thus, your past can constrain your identity ‘construction’. Particularly when it can’t be left behind. For example, archive.org has been archiving web pages on the internet for nearly 10 years now. This can be seen as both positive and negative. On a positive, it means you have to face all of your past realies. On a negative, it can give people (such as employers) a false sense of who you are ‘now’; it can constrain you.

Third Point, there is an issue with social networking sites, that individuals have too much ‘control’ around their online identity. Individuals can now put themselves in a position to be able to package their life online, and this online construction may not be ‘holistically’ representative of the integrated identity. It may represent a planned and controlled fragment of your identity, or even an entirely manufactured identity. At the other extreme, the fragments of identity that does lie on the internet, may result in people constructing a narrow and perhaps even false sense of who you are as an integrated identity.

Final point, the solution to all this seems 3 fold. (1)Government policy with regards data protection (2)Responsibility and forsight with regard to website owners and content managers (3)Individual responsiblity, in terms of managing your online identity and maintaining a degree of foresight.

Overall, it seems like there isn’t a polarising solution. A balanced attitude to your identity and privacy on the internet seems the best approach. Individuals need to be vigilant and maintain foresight when posting information on the web. On the other-hand, individuals need to be attentive to how, ‘controlled’ and ‘representative’ that information on the web is of their ‘integrated identity’

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