Sh0w and T3ll

Identity Crisis November 20, 2009

The Internet allows for many different identities. People can hide behind screen names and IDs that have nothing to link them to their real identity. There is a lot of room for anonymity because people can write whatever they want about themselves and there is rarely anyone who checks it. They are only words on a screen or a character in a game.

But so what? Is anyone being hurt by this anonymity? Do you really need to know who you are talking to when you get on AIM? Many Internet users do not even think about the fact that the other people on the computer are anonymous. My fiancée says he never even thought about the fact that the person he is talking to on Facebook might not be who they say they are. There have been days when he thought he was talking to my sister, Hannah, but he was actually talking to me. That’s no big deal to him. But it can be.

For kids who get on Facebook or Myspace and start talking to every person who sends them a friend request, anonymity can be dangerous. People who use these social networking websites as the base for kidnapping or sexual harassment will often set up an account that describes them as another kid. Because these children are not thinking about the idea that someone could be a threat to them on the Internet they will share personal information that allows these perverts to find them off the computer.

The Internet is causing an identity crisis. Not the kind that makes people question who they are. This crisis causes questions about who everyone else is. Stop and think about it next time you get on Facebook chat, or even WordPress. Who is writing and who are you really talking to? Who is hiding on the other end of cyberspace