As convergence between our offline lives and our activities online increases, the subject of authenticity arises more frequently. Identifying details such as our offline legal names, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, occupation or marital status are seen as signifiers of the authentic self. Such details are useful to businesses wishing to communicate with their target […]
From the moment a user signs up to OkCupid, one of the world’s largest online dating services, he or she is asked to select a unitary and specific identity: female/male and straight/gay/bisexual. This insistence on a singular identity is not unique to OkCupid of course. Social media, online shopping sites and media providers all require the user to validate certain […]
Some thoughts about identity, online. Some netizens project their offline identity into online spaces. They mirror their so-called real lives by using their real names, writing factual and descriptive profiles, posting photos of themselves with family members, in common daily situations. Others create new identities. They use nicknames or pseudonyms, limit information about themselves to words which are […]
