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As we are getting more connected to the internet, the benefits and convenience are easy to see, and the issues are starting to surface. In current years, more internet related news are popping up more frequently, so much so that PBS Frontline did an program, Growing Up Online, specifically addressing and uncovering some of the issues. In the program, one of segment is Self Expression, Trying On New Identities, in which features a girl, Jessica Hunter in real life and Autumn Edows in cyberspace. Her story chiefly is that Jessica always felt she was an outsider that never fit the mold, but at age fourteen, online modeling brought her confidence, fans, and fame. She wholeheartedly embraced her new online identity, but once her pictures were discovered by the school authorities and were deemed offensive and inappropriate, Autumn had to be deleted and Jessica was left to face the consequences.
In her interview, the thing that I found most fascinating was the way she hid her online identity completely, “I would lie my ass off just to keep my identity sacred,” which led me question that is Jessica protecting Autumn, her online identity, from reality? Or is Jessica protecting her fantasy world from reality? And why wouldn't her identity be sacred even if it is exposed to her real life? Is letting her parents and friends to know her other identity ruin the purpose of it? And what ultimately is the purpose of her online identity? From this point, Jessica explained further, “I didn’t feel like myself, but I liked the fact that I didn’t feel like myself. I felt like someone completely different.” This quote of hers reminds me the feeling that I had before and I think a lot of others also felt at least once in life: I wish I was someone else. More specifically, someone that is “better” than me. In Jessica’s case, Autumn was popular, she had hundreds of online friends, compare to Jessica’s real life, Autumn seemed to be the better one.
Surprisingly, it may be true to some extend, in the article Granting Personality to a Virtual Identity describes online identity as “usually (in most cases) embellished to make the physical person appear more intelligent, sexier, skinnier or bolder. The personality chosen usually embellishes what the person already has or aspires to be.” In a sense that Jessica just presented a better version of herself, and the big difference is she presented it online. Maybe if she tries to present a better version of herself in real life, she might make friends and be happier, but we know it is not that easy to change people’s perception about you, a clean start is pretty much not possible, but online she could freely express herself with control over the negative judgments from others, for example the hurtful comments can be deleted by her. This control over one's identity and interactions with others is a incredibly liberating experience that is quite unique to this medium.
I agree Lin. I have heard of several cases dealing with teens really depending socially on their online identity, as well. To go along with your theme, I think this suppressed Jessica's real personal identity with her being so involved in "Autumn's", or her online life. Her real life was not important. "Autum's" life was enabled though, and you are right, was easy to control. The scary thing about it all is that while Jessica is feeling good because she is getting more and more online friends, she probably doesn't realize at the time that these "friends" are complete strangers who are probably lying about their own identities, too. They could be out just to find a young innocent girl to trick, which has been the situation in many cases on the news.
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