"What does the development of the internet mean for identity?"

"What does the development of the internet mean for identity?"

As the internet has grown and developed more and more people are using the internet to show the world who they are through websites such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Blogger and many more. More people are joining these networks as they want to express their individuality to everyone, which is making being yourself more acceptable in society now. These networks are also a good way to help people express who they are, for example a housewife can become a singer by posting videos of herself singing, a cleaner can show their dance moves through videos, a receptionist can be a song writer/poet by writing poetry on their blog and more. The Internet has now become a new culture and community where people can talk with anyone from all over the world. Youtube has been said to be the "webcam and screen community" as people will record videos to show their identity and people will reply via videos and comments. This helps to show what other people think about who they are and their identity. When people create these they gain self awareness that they could be talking to anyone in the world and one day they will watch their own video back and you then begin to be in a self reflective mood.

As people become very aware of these things they may decide to change and alter their identity so that they will be liked by other people. This then means that people begin to lose their identity as they are changing themselves so that other people will like them. It is then a competition to be seen by everyone and get as many views/friends as possible, meaning people are creating this false identity just to be seen and not liked for who you are. These false idenitys lead to an identity crisis, if someone finds out your fake they may get annoyed as the have admired the person you are. People should not play with their identity, change their history and create stories as you will soon lose who the real you is.