So after reading several blog posts, it seems that most of us would choose to adopt either of the following strategies
Strategy #1: Use One Profile for All Social Media Networks
Strategy #2: Use Separate Personal and Professional Profiles
I am a believer of strategy #2, if only for these few points
- Helps maintain work-life boundaries
- Less fear of your colleagues or boss seeing personal details you may not want to share, so you may be more candid
- Messages from contacts will be more relevant to the account type
As for anonymity vs authenticity, it was interesting to that see that Zoie agrees with Mark Zuckerberg, that “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.” While Evelina disagrees, stating that you are just turning the volume up on some aspects of your identity, and tone down others, all based on the particular context you find yourself. I agree with Evelina. I do not think he should be questioning people’s integrity for simply wanting to manage their identities online. I believe you can have a layer of anonymity and still be authentic in your interactions on the web. I don’t think being authentic means that you have to expose every single detail about your life.
To finish off my reflection, i would like to thank Elisha for bringing to my attention the idea of “Owning your identity” in her comment to my post. There is this technology that was created upon the idea that, in the world of big-data where private information of people are being traded for profit, consumers should have a choice. Consumers should own their identity, and be able to profit from how their identity gets used, and most importantly, they should be able to choose and know when it’s being accessed and how it’s being used. While this seem to be a terrific idea that is pro-consumer, i am not sure that organizations that collect and sell data to advertisers would be excited about it. Also if this technology becomes widely adopted, many of the free services online that rely on ad revenue as income would cease to exist.
Till next time!
Links blogs i have commented on:
isaaclye 