In today’s age of social media, nearly every individual has two identities. One for real world and one for the online world, both equally important and extremely interwoven with each other.

According to Smith and Wattson (2014, p. 70), “Online spaces are constructed and the activities that people do online are intimately interwoven with the construction of the offline world and the activities and structures in which we participate, whether we are using the Internet or not” which explains the fact that online identities are not a seperate identity, but an extension or a different aspect of your overall identity, which can be seen in my online identity.

My online identity is consisted of different platforms such as Twitter, WordPress and AboutMe profiles. My twitter acts as a hub between my different professional social platforms, binding all of the different aspects of my online identity and bringing a professional aspect to it.

This leads to the creation of different personas which are formed by my online presence and by my behaviour on the online platforms. Platforms such as Twitter and WordPress form a professional online persona while my other online platforms like Instagram and Facebook, make up more of a personal online persona.

This is a proof to the fact that online identities go beyond the professional aspect, as thought by many. As stated by Smith and Wattson (2016, p.70) ‘ the sites and software of digital media provide occasions for young people to narrate moments in coming of age; for families to track and narrate their genealogical histories; for people seeking friends and lovers or those with similar hobbies to make connections; for political activists to organise around movements and causes.’ This is just a small example of how broad the definition of ‘online identities’ goes due to the advancement of the internet these days.

One good example of this is how online social platforms are one of the most prominent ways nowadays to raise voices about issues and give the issues a much needed exposure. I have used my personal social media platforms a lot of times to share some issues about the issues going on in my area or the issues which affect me or the people around me.

Another major aspect of social media is how people perceive your persona, which is made up by how you act on social media and what information do you want to put up on your social media. Performance of the self is a main component of my online identity which, according to Marshall (2010, p.39), is ‘performance of the self was a conscious act of the individual and required careful staging to maintain the self – a composed and norm-driven construction of character and performance’.

My twitter profile has a very professional performance of self, which is evident in tweets (1, 2) which consist of academic analysing, painting out my online persona on Twitter to seem very academic and professional, which is the persona I am aiming for as my twitter account is used mostly for my unit. My online identity depends on the platform and the identity I want to create on that platform, which results in two main personas making up my online identity; the professional one and the personal one.

Both personas have a distinct function and exhibit different sides of me and serve different purposes, but another main component which is prominent in my online identity is that both of my personas are kept seperate. My professional online identity has no mention of my personal identities or the platforms where my personal persona is shown, which is a conscious choice.

Online identities are perceived by me more as an extension of myself rather than a shadow, and for me it is something that I think I have full control over. I control what type of persona I want to put out forward, depending on the social platform and what is my ultimate goal that I want to achieve through that profile and the platform. All of this is evident through my profiles such as Twitter, WordPress and AboutMe.

Online identities are an essential part of one’s identity in this age and it gives them an opportunity to shape their online personas into however they want. This is one of the massive advantages that online spaces has provided us with, the ability to craft out our own online identities, giving us the creative freedom to be whoever and whatever we want, without any virtual limits.

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Reference List:

Smith S, Watson J 2014, ‘Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self Presentation’, Identity technologies: constructing the self online, p. 70-95, retrieved 14th December 2019, <https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy-f.deakin.edu.au/lib/deakin/reader.action?docID=3445384&ppg=79&gt;

Marshall D.P 2010, ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, p.36-48, 35-48, DOI: 10.1080/19392390903519057

Internet has been the wave which has completely changed the entire landscape of the whole world. Practices, the way people think and act, everything has been influenced by the internet.

Identity, according to Oxford Dictionary, means ‘the fact of being who or what a person or thing is’. But internet has allowed us the ability to morph our own identity into whatever we want.

As stated by Turkle (1995, p. 342), ‘computer mediated communication can serve as a place for construction or reconstruction of identity’. This is one of the reasons why the online space created by internet is the preferred place of many users, due to its freedom of creation of the identity.

Internet offers its users the freedom of ‘what information to put forward, thereby eliminating visceral reactions that might have seeped out in everyday communication’ (Boyd, 2007, p.12). This gives its users the freedom to do actions which they can not do in real life.

One great example of this is the article, Veiling and Blogging: Social Media as Sites of Identity Negotiation and Expression among Saudi Women written in 2015 by Guta H. and Karolak M. where they explain how in Saudi Arab, a country ruled by patriarchy, women resort to the use of blogging to express their thoughts and have freedom which otherwise in real life, they don’t have.

According to Erving Goffman (1959), people present themselves differently based on context (where they are) and audience (who they’re with) which is why people tend to present themselves in a manner which would allow them to blend in with people better or even ‘to get experience that they are not able to have in real world’ (KiYanC, 2010).

Internet and the online space created by it has allowed people to blur the lines between races and genders as they can morph their identity and present themselves as whoever they want to, with reasons ranging from gaining new experience to escaping their reality, where their race or gender does not allow them to speak freely in real life.

Reference list

boyd, d. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. in D. Buckingham (Ed.) MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume.

Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday

KiYanC (2010). The transition of online identity: from swapping gender to digital shadow, Retrieved 11 June 2012 from http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2010/04/the- transition-of-online-identity-from-swapping-gender-to-digital-shadow/

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

On Instagram, Selena has 162 million followers. She uses the Instagram feature of going live often so she can talk to her fans and have a connection with them and make them feel loved and connected to her. She has also spoken up about issues on her Instagram, mostly about the issues that have affected her and affects her fans.

On Twitter, she has 58.9 million followers. A trend that can be seen on her twitter is that she uses hashtags to reach more audience related to the topic and widen her exposure. Some of her tweets are presumably written by her team, linking to her music and promoting her music endeavours.

As stated by Marshall, Selena mostly uses her public private self, which is a ‘version of the self that the celebrity engages, or at least appears to engage, in the world of social networking. It is a recognition of the new notion of a public that implies some sort of further exposure of the individual’s life.’(Marshall, 2010). She keeps her life private but she also tries to connect to the public by revealing bits and pieces to connect. Selena’s social media also uses intercommunicative self, which according to Marshall 2010., is the use of different mediums like photos etc. to incite response from the audience. This can be seen as most tweets on Selena’s profile are photos and have the most engagements.

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Journalism has existed since the start of the time. People have always needed a medium to get unbiased information from.

But the way by which that information has been relayed to people has evolved immensely throughout times.

About 10 or 20 years ago people use newspaper and televisions to listen and watch the news, but now a-days people just using social media to watch news.

I have found the social media is the biggest changing nature of journalism, newspaper are now putting their stories and television news channels are putting their breaking news on the internet first before broadcasting the story.

I also think that this type of journalism is not reliable as social media can be influenced a lot by users, hence not making it reliable and often causing the start of fake news.

People just posting a fake news on social media. Fake news undermines serious media coverage and makes it more difficult for journalists to cover significant news stories.

So the evolution of journalism and the changes it undergoes through can be seen as a double edged sword.

On one hand, it is easier than ever now to get news from all around the world and get varying opinions on it.

But on the other hand, it is easier than ever too to spread agendas through fake news due to the significance of social media in today’s journalism.

What’s up, I’m Fazila and I’m a student in Deakin College, living in Dandenong VIC, Australia. I am a fan of design, and travel. I’m also interested in arts and movies. You can visit my website with a click on the button above.

If you guys want to add me on twitter here is my account:

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This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

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