Interview - Identity

1. How many online identities do you have?  What are they like?
For all of the interviewees(Bowie, Vivian, Kasey, Nina and Rainbow), they got more than five online identities.  And their identities are facebook account, messenger account and different kind of game account & forum account.  There is an extreme case, for Vivan, she got more than 20 identities in facebook!  This result shown how easy it is to make an identity online, unlike real world, we only have to click few times, then we can have as many identities as we want.

2. In what ways are they different to your "in person" identities?
I split the answers from the interviewees from 2 categories.
I. Passive
For Bowie, Kasey, Nina and Rainbow, they choose to be a passive role in the internet, they don't want to share what they really think in the internet.  For Kasey, she even think herself is an observer in the internet.

II. Active
For me and Benlansha, we think we are more "open" in the internet, and more willing to share our ideas and feelings.  I think it is because we are more hidden in the internet, unlike real world, we have to be responsible for what we have said, in this virtue world, we only have to change a username or open a new account.


3. What are some benefits of expressing one's identity online?
More Rights & Power
For me & Chriz, expressing one's identity online can allow us to have more benefits in the internet, because many services (facebook, MSN...etc), required us to have an identity first, after this, we can enjoy the services from these websites or softwares.

4. Risks of identity online
As mentioned by Chriz, he worried about the when he is being caught by what he did with his identity, such as download games illegally.  From his response I think what is he worrying is correct, in 2005, there was a user called "古惑天皇", he uploaded many movies to the internet and being caught in the same year.  We always think that there is no responsibility with our identities, but sometimes we may have a great trouble because of this thought.

I think another risk is related to the first problem, as I have mentioned, it is very easy to make an identity online, the users don't know which identities are real, or fake.  In the culture of internet forum, when there is a big argue happening, users can create lots of fake users to support his view, making the others believe in him.