Topic 2 Reflection

I started my last blog with the words: ‘Are you a dog?’. In reference to the fact anyone could be anyone on the internet.

The questions raised now are, so if you’re a dog, are you constrained by the leash of society or are you a proverbial ‘wild’ dog, who does as it pleases, where and when it wants? Also – If you say you are a Dog, can I really believe that you are what you say you are?

But this topic itself on digital identity was a chance for me to reflect on my own digital identity and integrity – are my multiple online profiles a real depiction of who I really am? Would someone go on my Facebook and have a good gauge of what I really like and what I am really like?

– probably not…

I am cautious about online security so try to obscure details. I am joining the RAF so try to keep any political or controversial posts away from the internet. It also stops me from speaking my mind sometimes. It leads me to what I said about the personal and professional Facebook profiles – two for two different audiences. While I could benefit in some ways, I still think that having one single profile for all sites is best – keeping a professional image on all sites. This is because if it goes on the internet it never comes back again – so it’s best to limit your identities to one coherent, professional identity you can use and manipulate for the rest of your life.

The links to my comments are linked below:

https://jblytheblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/online-identies-what-do-they-claim-about-you/comment-page-1/#comment-6

https://lphenixblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/multiple-online-profiles-an-accident-waiting-to-happen/#comments

https://maxcordery.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/the-idea-of-having-more-than-one-online-identity/#comments

Are you a dog?

Anyone worth their salt in the digital identity/privacy world will know the famous New Yorker cartoon shown above.

On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog

This was posted in 1993 – a whole 22 years ago, in the early days of the internet, yet the cartoon could not be more relevant today.

We live in a world where the youth of today are in an identity crisis, Here shows an example of where young people have two Facebook profiles. Which isn’t uncommon, as people have profiles public which is them conforming to what society wants, usually conservative. Then a private profile hidden from family where someone can really express who they are.
I know for sure this is a common thing, at least in the UK, where young people hide profiles from their parents – wary of the judgement they will face when they find out what they really think/do/say.

An academic report on a study of first impressions shows how important they are, so in a world where 3/4 employers check online profiles – do you really want them to see your WKD personal record?

Although, you can’t be sure the profile is who you think it is. Even proved today, its not uncommon to see this as I did on my Facebook news feed:

The problem is there is no way to authenticate who is sat behind a computer. This could, theoretically have been a dog which stole ‘Connor’s’ identity, the only way to track who did it may be an IP address, but you wouldn’t know who is sat behind the screen. Which is a really scary thought.

While online identities are important, I believe the video of 7 steps to online profile is naive in the sense of privacy and identity security. Websites like LinkedIn will help you get a job, comments on youtube videos won’t exactly be too helpful. I believe you should keep personal profiles, like forums, YouTube private, so people can’t easily find information out about you, making it easy to copy your details and piece together your personal information. Eg. you could easily find out answers to peoples security questions by a google search and piece together a picture of someone through their linked profiles. Report on Security Questions

So you could be a dog on the internet, but having multiple profiles can weaken your online security through information exposure. Although socially it can be helpful.

Not even sure if you would have this private or not

Topic 1 Reflection

I’ll start with the negatives with what I struggled with on the first blog post.
Firstly, I haven’t written a blog before, so the experience, designing the writing style and choosing something interesting to write about on the topic was quite hard. Also, with my chosen topic of relating the residents and visitors to gamers and non-gamers, I found it quite hard to fit my point across in such a small amount of words.
So myself, I’ve learnt either I am trying to get across too large a subject – or I am not concise enough in my writing. Both of which, due to my novice level of blog writing, are both likely. So with my next blog I will have to plan out what I am going to write, to ensure that it will be short enough to fit in the confines of 400 words.
This was also the case with the comment on the blog, as I may need to review my approach, as 150 words again for someone who does not do much writing, is not a lot to give a full review into someone else’s writing.
Standing out from the crowd where everyone has done the same topic over the terms is also another challenge for me, as I will try to come up with an original view which hasn’t been done before. Which is why I thought it would be a good idea to do another syntax of gamers and non-gamers as it would be something people haven’t done before or thought about which I thought was a positive.

Although as a positive, this first attempt gave me practice in the art of formulating a professional looking blog and my mistakes will hopefully be gone for the next topic.

http://tl10g13.robpress.ecs.soton.ac.uk/

Links to my comments:
https://katieuniacke.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/the-digital-world-is-a-place-not-a-language/

https://jblytheblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/are-you-a-digital-visitor-resident-or-are-you-somewhere-in-between-the-continuum/comment-page-1/#comment-1

Residents and Visitors – Syntax Error

Residents and visitors has been described as:

a new typology for online engagement

I’ve found everyone and anyone can sub-type residents and visitors into sub categories. We need a strong type rule where the terms can be indivisible. So that’s why I look at why we go online, what are the psychological reasons we visit the web.

So this is why I believe we should be in the spectrum of Gamers and Non-Gamers, a much more binary and meaningful term.

The Major League Gaming Logo – a large gaming community gathered solely on the practice of gaming.

So first you have to ask the question Why people go online? This is where the gamers and non gamers are differentiated. Gamers go online for enjoyment whilst non-gamers go online out of need.

For example, a non gamer will just use the internet to google something, or to do banking or use maps. Whereas clearly a gamer will incorporate this into their habits, but they will go online on Social media or maybe even literally, to play games – although this isn’t a definition of a gamer.

Why?

Well… most things you can contribute to online can been seen as games. Wikipedia, Twitter, WordPress, Qoura – all big websites has a staple success of implementing gamification to their websites in order for you to visit again.

I’ll break down the basics of gamification and relate it to twitter:

• Voluntary.
  Quite simply, games are designed to be fun, if you are forced to do something, it will feel like work. So as in twitter, it is your choice to play or not.
• Points.
  Like all games you get points for what you do, twitter allows you to receive points in the form of re-tweets and tweets.
• Score.
  The number of followers you have, or mentions you receive is a twitter score. You will intrinsically, as a player, try to increase your score, as you would in all games.
• Social engagement
  Whilst not a necessity of games, it now is a fundamental part of the motivating factor behind playing games. This is done via @Mentions, engaging other players. Tweets and re-tweets, where intrinsic happiness comes from the status derived from a high amount of followers.
• Avatar
  You have a customized avatar, where you can change your picture and background.

So as any site which uses gamification, like Badges, Leader-boards, Points, Scores, Social engagement, Avatars. Then you can count yourself as a gamer. You will be able to tell really whether it is an active choice to go online for enjoyment, rather than out of need. As thanks to gamification, the tricks used make us want to go online.

So instead of categorizing you engagement on what your digital literacy is, what you do online, your digital footprint and so on, it should be on why you go online.

Some other reading for those interested:
Blog on Twitter Gamification
Link to the book I’ve used to research gamification
Visitors and residents: A new typology in engagement