Blog Post 2

– What is a digital identity?

An identity is what characteristics, personality, hobbies, beliefs and values build us to become who we are in this world. This identity is unique and can be in various formats, depends on different cultural backgrounds and personality traits. A digital identity is just like our identity but in the online format. Everyone has a unique ID and we can use our digital identity to perform our presence and online activity (Stoller). With a digital identity, we can share our lives via social media, check banking activity at home, learning from others and working, etc. What people do online can reflect their identity in reality. For example, people who enjoy watching sports games can also engage in an online sports community to gain the newest information and make friends via the internet. As the Youtube video mentioned that other people like a potential employer, can know who you are through your searchable online “footprint” (Stoller). In my opinion, a digital identity can be fluid in different circumstances. We can have different digital identities for formal use like in the workplace or informal (private) identities for family/friends.

– How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

As previously mentioned, nowadays lots of leisure time/working business is performed online via social media. Social media now emerges globally and both the number of online users and new kinds of social media Apps are increasing dramatically in the past two decades (Spracklen). People spent more time on social media, for work and leisure time. For private usage, we can share cute photos to make friends online. People can explore their interests through other people’s posts on social media about how to cook/do make-up, etc. For professional use, there are certain types of social media can resent your career experiences, educational background, a research area for other professionals or employers to review your profile or even have academic interactions between professional. Researchers from different countries can co-publish studies and so on. Therefore, we found that the tendency of usage and widespread of social media is consistent and upward.

– How do digital identities converge in networked publics – what are the impacts and/or benefits?

In the past, people can easily divide the work and private life, but recently it becomes harder to do so. For example, Facebook is a communicating App that can share pictures and show a profile that introduces your backgrounds. And people can use it to talk to family or discuss homework/business with colleagues. Another reason that personal use and professional approaches towards social media use is that they are great social networks that can maintain contacts (Spracklen). Social media conveniently connects people and helps people communicate, no matter the people you are talking to is a coworker in a foreign country or distant relatives. The advantage of the emerge of social media is that it leads cooperation and communication to a different level, the world has never been tightly connected like it is today. However, the shortcoming is that our privacy can be sometimes invaded. Social media can imperceptibly push a lot of (tendency) information based on our private background, such as political news, shopping, and sometimes even spread false information such as rumours.

– Can a digital wallet provide trust in networked publics?

A digital wallet is now one the most frequently used way for customers to shopping online, make bank investments and travel/live in foreign countries for currency exchange, etc. There are many tools as a digital wallet like Apple Pay and Paypal. But the usage of a digital wallet is not limited to personal economic management, it also holds crucial personal information in the network. Whereas the hacker can be so skilled nowadays that the security of our information can not be guaranteed by the government and banking services. But as long as people can have a trustful government and transparent illustrations of how our information and property can be used and stored, I believe the trust of the digital wallets can be built gradually.

References

Davos (2019), Press Conference “The Value of Digital Identity for the Global Economy and Society” Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-V7lyxrOmw&feature=youtu.be

Jawed, Saira, et al. “Digital Professional Identity: Dear Internet! Who Am I?” Education for Health (Abingdon, England), vol. 32, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 33–35. EBSCOhost, doi:10.4103/efh.EfH_232_17.

Spracklen K. (2015) Identity-Making and Social Media. In: Digital Leisure, the Internet and Popular Culture. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405876_6

Stoller, Eric. “What is digital Identity.” Youtube, uploaded by University of Derby, 25 11 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0