Discovering your Online Identity

 Discovering your Online Identity

An online identity is a social identity that a user establishes in online communities and websites ("Online identity", 2010). From the first time you log on to a social networking site like Facebook, tweet a message on Twitter, or post a comment on your favourite blog, you're creating an online identity. The more content we contribute to social media sites, the more we grow our online identity.

I have been active on social media for over 4 years now, I created my first social media profile on Orkut in 2009 which was very famous at that time amongst my friends and since after that I have been using social media daily to be in touch with my friends and have created a lot of webpages online by registering to Facebook google+, In short I use social media not only for personal use but also to connect with people professionally. When I searched myself on google and Bing with the keyword "Dilshad Shaikh" the only relevant result I found was from LinkedIn besides that there were number of other people with the same name and a guy who is a famous composer in India. I have been using LinkedIn for over a year now and I have updated all of my career details with my profile image and the details of what I did till now professionally and since my profile was open to anyone with the internet access. they could find out what I did in my career till now, well given the fact that I knew the information provided by me will be visible on the internet I was not shocked of the fact that this information can be found easily but I was astonished to see that the google didn't returned my Facebook and my domain webpage on the top list. But when I tried googling my username which is "Dilshadsk" it returned a lot of result which was appropriate to my profile such as Instagram, my own personal website i.e. www.dilshadsk and also my linked profile. after checking out the result I can say most of the details which I have added on my social media profile only was available for the people to see online but I have restricted some information on my Facebook page which is associated with my profile using the privacy settings such as my post, pictures, interests and friend list, so most of the information I found on internet was only related to my professional profile with only one of my professional image.

Once something is on the Internet, it is there permanently. Even if you wanted to remove it, chances are it has already been copied and archived on several other machines and passed around so many times that you'll never be able to remove every copy. That's why you should always think really hard about something before you publish it on the Internet.

So we would want to build up our positive online presence considering few simple steps.

To Claim online name: When you create accounts, use your first and last name instead of a made-up screen name – e.g. “Dilshad8799” this will help you to have an access to what details you add under your username and also to be consistent with Username. Using the same name everywhere so your name becomes your brand, Use a service such as Knowem, a website where you can check whether your name is available on dozens of social networks and websites. If you have a common name -- if you share a name with a public figure, your name may be taken. In that case, add your middle name or initial to your online identity,

Link to yourself: One way to show people you’re legit is by linking your social media persona to other online accounts -- a website if you have one, or a bio on your employer’s website or organization where you’re a member or volunteer. But be careful. There’s a fine line between sharing enough to confirm who you are and giving away information a thief could use to impersonate you to get a fake ID or open a bank account, according to security experts.

Start a wiki under your name: Creating a wiki page about yourself also gives an advantage to increase your chances of being indexed on the main page when searched and it will rank high for you. We can could turn the wiki into a resume, a list of your favorite things to do or a listing of websites.

Blogging: write more articles on web blogs on different topic using online name.

Find out what people are saying about you. Keep tabs on your online identity by doing regular Google searches of your name to see what turns up. Set up alerts on Google, Yahoo or other search engines to get daily or weekly notices when your name’s mentioned.

What we publish can be traced back to you and reflects our personal character. It's becoming a very common practice for colleges and workplaces to look up potential students and job applicants to find out what kind of person they are, and many people have been turned down because of what they put on the Internet. Instead, why not we use your Internet permanent record to our advantage? Making sure that the only things published by or about us online are good things. Things that show we are an honest, considerate, hard-working person, and someone a college or employer would be honored to have as part of their organization.

References

Carnegiecyberacademy. What is Your Online Identity? Retrieved From http://www.carnegiecyberacademy.com/facultyPages/communication/identity.html

Online identity. (2010, July 14). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:28, August 3, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=373510435

Schawbel, D. (2009). How to Take Control of Your Google Search Results. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/control-google-search-results/

Kimberly Fenton February (21, 2014). Multiple Online Identities: Good or Bad? Retrieved from https://kimberlyfenton.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/multiple-online-identities-good-or-bad/

Real Change or Slactivism?

Real Change or Slactivism ?

Social media has been used to raise awareness on many issues which can be used to make it as a widespread viral promotions to promote a good cause but sometimes sharing the post on Facebook and posting likes and doing an activity doesn’t really helps the campaign, it's great to tell your friends that something is important enough to share with them, but it's virtually meaningless if it doesn't lead to further action. If you can't go beyond the virtual realm and actually do something about it, you really don't care that much about it at all. Slacktivists are a generation of digital activists who like, share, tweet, hashtag, and re-blog social causes, but supposedly do not bring about any real change. When someone on social media shares a status update or a link, a person might feel that they've already done their part, which absolves them of the responsibility to do anything more. But until they've put genuine time and effort into helping a cause, they really haven't done much. In fact, if they feel that sharing a link has lifted the burden of action from you, then they actually be even less likely to contribute to a cause when it matters most.

The online petition is very common. Online petitions are not generally binding on anyone, so they carry essentially no weight at all. But they're an easy way to make people think they're accomplishing something, so companies like Change.org offer them by the hundreds of thousands; Google currently lists about three quarters of a million petitions on that site alone. Perhaps once in a long while, a petition will garner enough signatures to persuade a reporter to write an article that a company may respond to from a public relations perspective; but more often, these are not productive. 

One such example of slacktivism was the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” The concept was simple: dump a bucket of ice-water on your head, have a friend film your performance, post and share the video online and nominate other friends to do the same. The point of the challenge is to raise awareness about a cause and give cash to a charity. Some ambiguity exists as to whether you’re supposed to do the challenge instead of donating, or do both. But this comment might be beside the post when you consider the sheer volume of donations the ALS Association has received over the past month. Most of the users spent money on preparing the video spent money on buying the camera and bags for the video then tagging their old friends. Showing it to people they care and doing that people feel to be a part of something bigger than themselves. The viral nature of this almost hurts ALS due to the substitution of potential donations with a social post; internally, people think they have donated when in turn they've only posted.

Raising awareness with Facebook "Like" buttons certainly does no harm, but it's called slacktivism for a reason. By doing it, you're slacking. You're only making yourself feel good. If you really care about the issue, find out what group is actually out there on the ground working to solve it, find out what their real needs are, and do whatever it takes. Probably it involves writing a check. If you can't afford to give, and you feel that clicking the "Like" button is better than doing nothing at all, then first trouble yourself to research if this issue is even real. By being able to connect online, this generation is more aware of the world as a whole and the various social and political problems different people face. It is not about social media, or the way in which the message was delivered. It is now about being armed with the information and what we choose to do with it.

References:

Avneet Dhillon. (June 27, 2014). Beyond Slacktivism: How Social Media Powers Online Fundraising. Flipgive Retreived from http://blog.flipgive.com/beyond-slacktivism-social-media-and-online-fundraising

Scott Gilmore. (November 11, 2014,). The problem with slacktivism, Macleans.ca. Retrieved from http://www.macleans.ca/society/the-real-problem-with-slacktivism/

Brian Dunning (June 17, 2014) Slacktivism: Raising Awareness, Skeptoid Retrieved from http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4419

Penny Carothers, (Jul/Aug, 2012) Slacktivism is our generation all talk when it comes to social justice? Relevant Magazine Issue 58. Retrieved From http://www.relevantmagazine.com/reject-apathy/worldview/slacktivism

Ben Kosinski. (July 10, 2014). #IceBucketChallenge: Why you’re Not Really Helping Huffington Post Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-kosinski/icebucketchallenge-why-yo_b_5656649.html

My Digital Sabbatical

While social media is addictive, Persuasive, takes time and energy. It was not difficult for me to avoid social media because I have already done this before for few days and I have been doing this whenever my exams are near or I have to study. I usually try to avoid checking my Facebook, Instagram and twitter updates and posts when I have to study and also I disable my data connection on my phone so that I don't get notifications from social media applications.

When going offline from social media my friends did get in touch with me through Facebook and I saw it when I logged into my account after going online in two days. since I have some friends in India and Dubai who usually contact me through Facebook and skype since it is the only way they can reach me when I want to talk with them and since my phone doesn't have international calling option so they were not be able to reach out to me.

I was able to stop myself in checking Facebook, Instagram and twitter posts but couldn't stop myself in checking the messages on skype since it was also the weekend many of my friends and family were trying to reach out to me to talk and know about me the only thing which caused me to cheat was since I only get time on weekends to talk to them and also they get free only on weekends.

When I was a kid the medium of communication was simple now we no longer require homes, offices, or cafes to stay in touch with people; we can do it wherever we happen to be. Social media has augmented, rather than undermined, our personal relationships: “Online communication – email, instant messaging, chat rooms, etc. does not replace more traditional offline forms of contact face-to-face and telephone. Instead, it adds on to them, increasing the overall volume of contact. More specifically, people with a great deal of on-line conversations have just as many off-line conversations as those who decline to participate in the former. The Internet just increases the overall frequency of communication. Rise of the social media has helped simultaneously in both local and long-distance relationships. Social media have allowed us to stay in touch with other individuals regardless of location,

Remarkably it wasn't as difficult as I thought it will be the time I spent browsing Facebook and Instagram was spent on working on cleaning my house and actually interacting with my roommates more and also my work was done more quicker. What I liked about the social media sabbatical was that taking a break opened up space to think about the goals I have to achieve concentrate on other things and explore.

I realize that when I am not using social media the circle of friends I connect to gets smaller without social media I only interacted with my roommates and a friend from work through this experience I felt that social media has created a huge impact in society in today's world so that everyone could stay connected.