In our world of ever increasing technological reliance and online integration, more and more people are allowing full access to almost every aspect of their life. People are building their online identity to be a true representation of themselves. Ten or so years ago, things were very different. We all know the somewhat famous "on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog" adage, and this used to be true. In the olden days, real life and online life were two very separate aspects, but this is no longer the case.
We all know that Facebook and Google accounts are tied to our real name. We all have "friends" or connections in real life that are also connected to these accounts and our internet activity is monitored and logged as we surf the web. But we don't care that this traffic is kept track of because these popular social networking sites make our lives infinity easier. We sign in, and as data is logged, the webpages we view are tailored to our interests and search history. This information, along with that which we supplied to create a social network account, creates a full person, almost exactly the same online as in real life.
Christopher Poole believes Facebook's commercial motivations kill the online experience: "Mark and Sheryl have gone out and said that identity is authenticity, that you are online who you are offline, and to have multiple identities is lacking in integrity. I think that's nuts." he also goes on to talk about how there are still some places on the web where the "anonymity" aspect of the old web are still available.
Others believe this attitude of wanting anonymity is naive. Since the web has moved from a geek sport to a mainstream occupation, the millions want somewhere safe, where "real" people are much less inclined to behave in a negative manor. Where their fake identity cannot be stolen of imitated. This attitude is even written into popular social networking sites' terms of service. If a profile does not appear to be ties to an offline person, that profile is deleted by the moderators. This ties the online and offline world even closer together.
While I may be a normal person in terms of what social network profiles I have, I also believe in the ability to remain anonymous whenever I want. This has lead me to the discovery and use of something called Tor. It is software that hides your IP address by bouncing all communications through several different "nodes." These nodes are other people located throughout the world. So that means that I can start up the Tor browser and for anyone who may be watching, it will appear as if I'm not even connected to the internet. You can become even more anonymous by keeping off of sites with Java, using a VPN, and learning how to encrypt messages with a 2048-bit PGP code. There is a lot that goes in to keeping yourself invisible online and it isn't the easiest of tasks to accomplish. It is something you really need to be dedicated to which is one of the reasons I think most people don't care that they are giving up so much information each time they turn on the computer.
Overall, I think that because of employers using social networks to gauge applicants before even meeting them, the amount of information that is logged, and how much a person is willing to share with strangers, we need to be more careful with what we put out there. I wish there was a "business" profile and a "social" profile for Facebook that would allow a presentation of the professional aspects for companies to view while still maintaining the fun, social profile for friends and families.
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