I found an interesting essay about online and offline identity and what the internet has enables young people to davelop in terms of their identities.
http://www.123helpme.com/identity-view.asp?id=218377
Stealing the identity of another is not an honest act. However, the Internet allows many opportunities for exploration of identity and has displayed personal social exploration to fulfill their curiosity. According to Lemke (1998), young people develop a sense of full presence online, living in them semiotically as they make cultural and personal sense of their participation. The shaping of an identity plays a vital role in the online world especially in having sustained online presence within any particular online-group. Turkle (1995) believes identity tinkering online opens the potential for young people to take risks and to explore all aspects of one's identity.
The anonymity that the medium provides have a powerful, disinhibiting impact on behavior and it allows young people an unique opportunity for self-expression. Turkle (1995) argues that the participation in online identity play is similar to participation in pyschodrama. This ties in with the idea of the game as a means though which experience is formulated (Erikson, 1968). According to Turkle, the identity game helps to bring about psychological maturity. It is achieved by being able to develop different facets of the identity and experiencing variable progress between different identities.
According to Steven G. (1998) , young people can and do take on second identities to protect their offline from their online identity. Steven (1998) believes young people allow themselves to behave in ways different from offline life, to express formerly unexplored aspects of their personalities, much as they do when wearing masks at a masquerade ball.
Amber Case (2010) mentioned on TED, Washington DC, (Fig 4A &ump; Fig 4B) the need for maintenance of second self in simultaneous time. Amber (2010) believes good technology does not inhibit one's lifestyle, but enhances it. Being responsible with technology use will be vital to maintaining oneself and making sure that the future generations aware of monitoring themselves.
Turkle (1995) argues that without coherence, the identity spins off in all directions and that multiplicity can exist only between personalities that can communicate among themselves. Steven G. (1998) states the fragmentation of the individual obstructs the development of the resilent online identity. Ultimately, one can create multiple versions of oneself; different versions of identity can be altered to particular audience. Nonetheless, for most young people these fragmentary social faces are merged into an emotional sense of a single identity. One is able to express more online than one says offline. Thus, hostile exchanges can be found erupting online, then one can abandon that difficult position by abandoning the identity through which it was projected. As mentioned by Steven G (1998), the fragmentation of the identity is primarily a disintegration of the internal psychological aspect.
Author has moved between online and offline spaces, systematically observing, documenting and talking to young people about their practices and attitudes. Case study research method is defined as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident and in which multiple sources of evidence are used” (Yin, 1984, p.23). Thus, this research uses a relevant case study, which provides a systematic way of approaching the problem of identity fragmentation in SNS, collecting and analyzing the data and reporting the outcome. The subjects of interviews and direct observations are primarily young people (differing in age, sex, race, sexuality, religion, ethnicity and socioeconomic class), author has also spent time analyzing the profiles and commentary of these young people.
In examining the practices of young people on SNS, author focuses primarily on Facebook. Many young people began participating because of the opportunity to craft a personal identity in an increasingly popular online community.
