Key quotes

1."Some critics have expressed an anxiety that Web pages may lead people to manipulate their public identities more than has been possible with traditional media. Howard Rheingold has argued that ‘the authenticity of relationships [and identities] is always in question in cyberspace, because of the masking and distancing of the medium, in a way that it is not in question in real life’ (Rheingold nd). Hugh Miller notes that in personal home pages ‘information about the self is explicitly stated and can be managed by the person making the communication’ (Miller 1995). This is, of course, not so easy in the direct face-to-face interaction. John Buten, with a certain degree of technological determinism, comments that ‘the Web might encourage conscious and deliberate social practices of self presentation’ (e-mail message, 9/11/96). Clearly, different media and modes of communication facilitate and inhibit different patterns of behaviour. We do not present ourselves in any kind of writing in the same way as we do in face-to-face interaction. Michael Jaffe et al. note that ‘a person "manages identity" by deliberately exhibiting and withholding pieces of social information, for the purpose of influencing the perceptions of others towards that person... This is an easier task when cues are limited to verbal text... than when they include graphics and vocal information, as in FTF [face-to-face] communication’ (Jaffe et al. 1995).
Chandler, Daniel (1998), "“Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web.” http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html

2. "Other groups in cyberspace encourage or even require that you assume an imaginary persona, as in the fantasy worlds of MOOs, MUDs, and other game environments. In multimedia chat communities, you have no choice but to wear an imaginative looking avatar to represent yourself. Many other environments fall somewhere in between reality and fantasy. You could get away with pretending to be someone very different than who you are, or you could alter just a few features - like your name, occupation, or physical appearance - while retaining your other true characteristics. No one will know, especially in text-only environments. In fact, you don't know for sure if other people are altering their identities, or how many people are altering their identities. This power to alter oneself often interlocks with dissociation and valence. Hidden positive and negative parts of oneself may seek expression in an imaginary identity that comes to life online. "
Suler, J.R. (2002). Identity Management in Cyberspace. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 4, 455-460.
http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html

3."These features are especially important for constructing online identity. First, the lack of technical expertise needed to create or maintain blogs makes the application more accessible regardless of gender and age. Next, the ability to archive blog posts creates a way to scaffold on previous impressions and expressions; thus, constructing identity can be a continual process for adolescents, and one to which they can refer. Finally, when blog software offers ways to provide feedback or link to other bloggers, this can foster a sense of peer group relationships, another important aspect for the developing adolescent. In short, weblogs represent a new medium for computer-mediated communication and may offer insight into the ways in which adolescents present themselves online, especially in terms of self-expression and peer group relationships, both of which impact the construction of identity. "
Huffaker, D. A., and Calvert, S. L. (2005). Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(2), article 1.http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html

4."In fact, the opportunity for Net users to take on radically different identities to the one they present in 'real life' could have positive consequences, as we will see later. The fact that an individual has so much selective control over their online identity, particularly in the case of personal web pages, can be of great interest to researchers -- we can study a person's online persona in comparison to their identity in 'real life'. We can thus suggest which aspects of their 'real-life' identity the individual would like to actively project, and which they would rather suppress, based on what they display (or don't display) on the Net. "
Littler, Daniel (1998). The Impact of the Internet on the Expression and Perception of Social Identities."
http://www.newmediastudies.com/resourc2.htm


5."The future of online anonymity depends on how an identity management infrastructure is developed. Law enforcement officials often express their opposition to online anonymity and pseudonymity, which they view as an open invitation to criminals who wish to disguise their identities. Therefore, they call for an identity management infrastructure that would irrevocably tie online identity to a person's legal identity; in most such proposals, the system would be developed in tandem with a secure national identity document. Online civil rights advocates, in contrast, argue that there is no need for a privacy-invasive system because technological solutions, such as reputation management systems, are already sufficient and are expected to grow in their sophistication and utility."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_identity From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia