My Identities on the Internet

When thinking of my identities online, the messaging tools on my mobile phone and computer first come to my mind, namely Wechat and Gmail. I view the two applications as the most important online tools since I use them mainly for talking about urgent matters in daily life: sending course files, contact families and friends, receive notifications from the college... I think this kind of tools helps people fulfill the needs of communication which closely link to real-life matters. In the communities of my WeChat friends and Gmail contacts, my online identity is nearly the same as the offline social identity: a college student, an intern, a member of a student society...

An example of WeChat

Another important online platform in my life is the different social media applications, such as Instagram, Facebook, WeChat Moments, Weibo… Posting on social media accounts mostly follows my personal interests. For instance, I like to post traveling pictures on Instagram or collect news about my favorite singer by searching on Weibo. The content of social media posts is mainly for entertaining and informal communication. Sometimes, we can even create unreal identities on social media by creating a new name and make up the personal stories. 

Some features of Weibo

Besides, we can receive information and entertain through other online applications, such as music apps and online games. We have more freedom when using such applications. My identity is also more casual on these platforms. I can be one of the audiences of the music app or a player with an imagined identity in the story of a game. On some platforms, I also participate in the creation of the content. I have recorded videos for a course project and posted them on YouTube. Other online users can view the work and interact with me. 

An imagined identity in the game

For the online communities, the diverse functions of different online tools help to shape multiple communities around me. Some of them consist of a single group with a specific goal, such as a course group on Canvas or a team project group on Slack. I can also create groups according to my need, like creating a WeChat group chatroom for a trip. In these communities, my identities are shaped by the goal of the community. Other tools may link me to a broader community. On my WeChat account, my friends include my classmates in high school and college, families, colleagues and so on. Different groups of people in my life aggregate as a community on WeChat and I am the center of the network. On the music apps or in online games, the community is bigger and consists of a broad audience with the same interests.

In a word, my online identities are determined by the nature of online communities I joined in. I discover that identities can be real or imagined according to my needs in different activities. I think our “unreal” identities is an important feature in online communication. Why do we sometimes want to create unreal identities? Will it bring opportunities or problems to us?