Digital Identity!

            When I think about the internet, I only can think of digital identity; by saying this I mean most of the time I go on the internet to use my identity to speak to others. With web 2.0 digital identities has come around this is because social networking sites has led to users becoming more interactive by making themselves their own identity whether it is their real selves or if it is a fake identity. The idea of digital identity can sound rather strange and it can lead to you wondering whether you are speaking to someone that has made themselves out to be a very different person. When digital identity first came around it was with sites such as; MSN, Bebo, Myspace and finally Facebook, each of these sites have become popular at different stages of when they have come out. When I was younger I first used MSN which is a chat website designed for people to speak to their friends, yet anyone can make an account and design their own identity and chose who they want to add, this has caused issues in the media and many young teenagers use these sites and are naive as to who they are talking to.

Also as the internet became more resourceful, so did the websites, when I say this I mean Bebo was one of the first social networking sites and it gave anyone who used it a digital identity because they could upload their own pictures, have a personal conversation with anyone they wanted and also give as much information about themselves available for most people to see online. The idea of this does sound dangerous however I do think it gives people a chance to become more confident and interact more than they could or would in the real world. This brings into relation the idea of avatar websites in which people can create their own persona and walk around into different worlds; these are digital identities in which people can create as a way to go into a new reality and be completely different than they can in the real world this can help build confidence for users but also can make users become too involved in a social reality and now with The Sims (a game which wasnt online) is even becoming online interactive means that people will socialise even more using a digital identity. However with Web 2.0 I feel that the site Facebook has been the biggest sensation so far for my generation, even with a film ‘The Social Network’ being released because of how well the website does. As I am a current user on Facebook I feel that my identity hasn’t changed however with status’ updates people use their identities to create more friends or to make themselves seem more popular. I do think that young users in particular need to be careful with whom they speak to but also digital identities could become much more series as the internet evolves.