Definitions of Identity: What does it mean?

From Websters:

1 a: the distinguishing character or personality of an individual
b: the relation established by psychological identification


From MacDictionary:

-the fact of being who or what a person or thing is


From Brainy Quote:

-The state or quality of being identical, or the same; sameness.



Although the definition of 'identity' are quite straight forward, the wording in these express some different attributes of what it means. At the root, obviously, it means the things that make up who you are. Who we all are. The things that we believe make us individuals. It can also mean the characteristics that people assume are a part of our identity, whether we're consciously portraying it such a way or not. But the definition from Brainy Quote, as informal as it is, suggests that it has more to do with how we're identical.

It really is hard to be "original," to have an identity that sticks out among the crowd. Especially, on a college campus of 40,000 students. But even so, we all use the same things (for the most part): Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Myspace if you like it vintage. So we try to stick out in person as well as online. But how do these online profiles differ, if they do?

I think that for my generation, however old or young it stretches, these two identities are becoming more and more one. At least for healthy, social people (those who don't rely on their online lives). If you looked at my Facebook profile, you wouldn't find anything that you wouldn't find out by talking to me in person. My Twitter updates, are usually something that I've already said and it's in the wit I use in person. So, my online identity is just the textualized version of who I am in person.

Jenkins: "Why Heather Can Write"

Or, how these new online outlets and identities can open new channels of creativity.



In chapter 5 of his book, Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars, Henry Jenkins hands us the idea of the online enhancing the creative process. "Storytellers now think about storytelling in terms of creating openings for consumer participation." (169) We learn of a young girl who, inspired by the Harry Potter Series, decides to create an online community catered to others who enjoy the series as much as she does. Among the social networks and various other websites that are geared towards being an extension of our personal selves, are these websites and message boards that are giving people chances they didn't have before the internet.

Today, anyone who would like to, can write their own story (like those of the Daily Prophet, the website that Heather Lawver created when she was 13) and share it with an online community; a bigger group of peers than a class could ever reach.

Without getting into the debate about what right the reader has to get involved in a story, I would like to focus on the idea of how websites like the Daily Prophet and other message boards, can enhance and add to the online identity. As a text, being able to write and share our ideas on the internet allows us to express a side of ourselves that may not come out in class or among our "real" lives. Creatively, this is an unprecedented situation where we're seeing many writers, most of them young, getting the chance to have peers view and critique their writings. As Jenkins' mentions, this is leading the way for younger, and more mature writers with highly developed text-based online identities. Of course, there are many reasons as to why things like blogs and message boards are bad for our online identities, such as sharing too much and filling up the internet with a lot of crap. But I like to believe that they're (the websites and the writers) are doing a lot to illustrate how important our online identities can be.

Blogs are one of the most common mediums to express oneself online. Websites like Blogger, WordPress, Live Journal, and Tumblr allow us, Digital Native both young and old, to post opinions about anything we may feel like talking about. With a few clicks of a mouse, I was able to create this blog to share my opinions on online identities. I also had another blog where I would post short stories and other writings online so that I could get feedback from others (but then I started thinking that since anyone has access to it, anyone could take my ideas or stories). It was a way for me to express myself through my writings and it is most definitely a part of who I am, online or not.

Palfry & Gasser "Born Digital'

[This was one of the main readings that helped me choose my keyword.]

First, this paper revolves around the phrase "Digital Natives." These are people who "were all born after 1980, when social technologies, such as Usenet and bulletin board systems, came online. They all have access to networked digital technologies. And they all have the skills to use these technologies." As a definition this is pretty clear, you aren't really left scratching your head as to what it means. Do I fit into this definition, yes. Will most of you fall into this category? Most likely.

"Digital Natives live much of their lives online, without distinguishing between online and the offline. instead of thinking of their digital identity and their real-space identity as separate things, they just have an identity." (4) There is this seamless connection between all of our Facebook tagging and status updates and who we are in "real-space." But, an older generation (like my mom's) probably doesn't have such a seamless connection. They were not "born into" these technologies. Laptops and software, social networking sites and even email, may have been difficult for older generations to learn because it wasn't required of them (or it just didn't exist). They learn how to use these technologies because they are growing in their importance. My mom, for example, has a Facebook. Yes, it's strange but she still has problems understanding everything that it can do, even almost two years after. For those who are outside of the "Digital Native" generation, understanding these technologies may take a long time to understand depending of the willingness of the learner.

But I believe that this definition has spread past being only a way to describe a certain group of people by age. It certainly describes a large group of people, but it's more than just an age division. It now describes a group of people (a large group of people) who use, or really, depend, on various amounts of technology daily. Facebook has become more than just a college-age oriented social network, Twitter is for the over-sharers (like me), our textual lives are saved on our laptops, desktops, and external hard-drives. We watch and save videos on YouTube and we check our bank statements and grades online. Many of us have smart phones that function as our computer home away from home and, admit it, you'd probably have a brain aneurysm if you ever lost or broke this phone. We are all digital natives.

Are all of these technologies bad? Palfrey and Gasser do not necessarily believe so. If the information was monitored (not controlled and filtered). "We too often overestimate the ways in which the online environment is different from real space, to our detriment." (10) But this is where I may disagree. I do not believe that we need to continue trying to separate the two aspects of our lives. Instead, the Digital Native may need to take responsibility and try to make sure the internet is a safe place for the younger generations. It's like a circus out there.

Purpose: Why I chose this key word.

Out of the many possibilities, identity stuck out to me for many different reasons. Much like an FCAT essay topic, it was very general and broad. In all honesty, I saw it as an easy opportunity. But after reading Born Digital I realized that focusing on online identities vs. our "real" identities may yield some interesting results.

This blog will focus on some main aspects of online identities: social networking sites, music sharing sites, blog sites, YouTube, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and other various internet societies that I know are popular or that I am a part of. I will attempt to explain, from my point of view, why these online aspects of our personalities are so important. [I didn't say I would find an answer, but you have to think about something before you can even "find" an answer.

I am open to comparing explanations from the readings that we have in class as well as some outside sources. And I am going to use examples, mainly my own personal posts, of what these parts of our lives shares with the world.

Is there a difference between the age of technology we, all of us, live in now and those of the books we all read in school about dystopian societies?

So what's going on here?

This is my multimodal project. I am declaring this mine. I chose to do a blog, not just because it makes adding all these different mediums into one place easier but because of the way I can present it. Blogs have the reputation of being personal. They aren't just websites meant for relaying information, they're websites relaying only the information that the owner wants to share. They're usually opinions and rants about things that are bothering people. And since I enjoy ranting, and some of these issues "inspire" me, I thought this would be the best choice.

My key word is IDENTITY and I'm using this blog to focus more on what it means in our generation and what it may mean to the generations after. I am going to ponder such things as: are our online identities so very different from our real identities? How are they different? And I'm going to relate them to my own online identities and explore how my online and reality identities differ.

I plan to include my reflections on some of the class readings, YouTube videos, posts from Twitter, Facebook, and various other items that I believe make up our online identities.

I plan to use this as an exploration of what identity really means in this day and age.

Table of Contents

Or really, how is this organized.

Post 1- My intent & what my project is for.

Post 2- Why I chose this word.

Post 3- "Born Digital" By: Palfry & Gasser

Post 4- "Why Heather Can Write" By: Henry Jenkins

Post 5- Definitions: what does "identity" mean.

Post 6- Secret Lives of Teens: a video exploring how the online world is affecting teens.

Post 7- Facebook: Generation Over-Share

Post 8- Facebook Statistics

Post 9- So what does this all mean?