Cyberspace Identity

When I turn on my computer and I hop on to the Internet am I still Victor? Am I still myself, the outgoing, social, laid back, friendly, kid I am on any given day? Yeah, I think so. I think who I am out of the cyberspace world aids in formulating my identity on it. I still make the same sarcastic remarks, still like to laugh, talk with my friends, and have a good time. I don’t really seem to change all that much. Now, perhaps my consistency in my real life personality and the online one lies in the fact that I don’t get involved in a lot of the activities that other online users do. Besides, the typical search for news and information my participation online extends to maybe Facebook, instant messaging such as iChat or Skype, and obviously email. All of these rely on the people knowing exactly who I am and whom they are interacting with. There really isn’t opportunity to disguise myself or even the necessity to. On Facebook people see my pictures, whom my friends are, and some of the activities I have been involved. They can generate an overall representation of who I am. However, when you begin to examine other Internet activities such as public chat rooms, the gaming world, avatars individuals use to symbolize themselves you begin to realize that maybe people aren’t always who they are outside the protection of the cyber fortress. Maybe people do change, maybe all some people need to become a hacker, a criminal, a sexual predator, is the protection of a computer screen, and a hook up to the Internet world.

We are forced to propose the question, do people change who they are when they use the internet from who they are in reality? Although they might change in their usual behavior I feel they do not change in personality. As stated by Chester and Breton (2007), “What we do and who we are online are shaped consciously and unconsciously by who we are. . .” I have to agree with the point they are trying to get across. It is not the people and their personality that changes when provided with a convenient method of disguise, but actually the character traits that are being emphasized. Something inside the individual, something unobtainable, a need met unfulfilled, at least in the real world, is being unleashed in cyberspace. Attributes within an individual, some of which the person is completely unaware to their existence, are hiding somewhere in their subconscious. Through the Internet’s direction they are able to be brought out of captivity and set free into the wild. Only on the Internet can the individual express these fractions of their personality.

The stalkers, the sexual assaulters, the hackers, even the unusually good people are still these things in real life even though they perhaps might not reflect that behavior normally. The only difference is behind the walls and barriers the Internet provides they are able to express themselves and these characteristics that they may or might not know they have.