Personas and Identity Constructions in an Online Community
05 March 2014
_____________________________________________________________________________
Abstract
Identity construction is an integral part of an online community, the kind of identity you construct shows how you will be perceived and the reputation you will build in an online community. We mostly use the core human identity as a base for all other fragments of identities we actively construct and represent ourselves with in an online community. In the process of constructing our online identities we also give out information about our true self especially when the identity we create are pseudo and the aim is to disembody ourselves from our online identities. We construct our identities with the expectation of sociability and having meaningful relationships hence the platform affordances and how we want to be perceived plays a major role in our identity construction. In game we construct identities that are true to the identity of the characters we create. In some online communities we put up identities that show our professional self. Some also give the affordance that permits us to maintain the individuality of private self, while others draws on our fantasies etc.
Introduction
Various online mediums and communities has different ways of helping us construct identities for ourselves and build an online reputation some are more central to who we are than others. Some communities expect us to be true to our identity and give out our genuine identity hence plays the role of extending our core human identity that we have physically into the virtual sphere (for example Facebook). Others spurs fantasies and expect us to create fictional identities for ourselves which ties more into fictional roleplays, hence the medium itself is aware of the roleplay it requires of the individual therefore its by nature not expecting a true identity from its members or community (In games, Habbo Hotel). Unless users adopt multiple online profiles, social networking sites represent a confluence of identity roles, spaces where users “must adjust their behavior so as to make it appropriate for a variety of different situations and audiences” (Papacharissi, 2009, p. 207). I can relate this context to the art of making a professional CV, depending on the kind of job one is applying for one can alter the curriculum vita in a way that best suites for the job at hand. For example a person apply for a job as a customer service personnel might draw on interpersonal relations skills more in the CV while other persons seeking for administrative duties might draw on writing, filing and general administrative duties instead. Hence the content of the CV is as important as the way it's been structured. When we construct our identities we firstly look out for the affordances of the medium then we use it as a base to decide what kind of identity we would like to portray in that particular community or social media site. A platform like twitter expects a person to have a true identity inasmuch as the user is not bound by any law or conditions its the users choice to show his or her identity. But then considering the second condition that its a professional community hence the identity you create for yourself on such platform goes a long way to serve as your professional identity therefore care must be taken in making choices. Thirdly the kind of tweets you engage with also tells the kind of identity you are putting up. You will be directly linked to the kind of tweets you engage with even if, you just put things out there for fun, your personality will directly be connected to it by others. (working the twittersphere-Papacharissi, 2009,) This is because the platform has very limited way of allowing people to show off their personas or identity so there is this simple yet complex persona analysis that everyone on that platform uses to determine who to follow or not. Platforms like this blurs the real and the virtual in to one context “the professional you” as your virtual identity is an extension of your true self. Hence its a means of edification and must be handled and created with great care to avoid misrepresentation on such a subjective platform. Not only that because there are not right ways of knowing truly who is who and people are aware of the fact that drawing conclusions on someone because of the kind of tweets he or she engages with is very subjective. There is also a dynamic that if popular media houses or famous online professionals act as endorsers, not directly though but for instance if by chance a well known professional on twitter retweets someones tweet then that becomes an endorsement for the people on the twitter sphere. It is an indirect endorsement yet it gives a sense of authenticness to the person indirectly. This kind of endorsement is quite vague considering the fact that people pay money to buy twitter followers. Hence even a major mediahouse or a reputable persona on twitter has no way of authenticating the real person behind a mask identity within the twittersphere. Sometimes its rather the fake people that take their time to construct very professional identities and reputations for themselves with a level of consistency that cannot be easily disproved.
Paltalk- Atheist Coffee Club
Tying this back to my online community PALTALK. I have looked at various communities within Paltalk and they all have a standard rule that is age restrictions and a set of norms that members has to follow. Some of these norms are generally what the platform allows for for example raise your hand if you want to speak on the platform, cursing is allowed hence age restrictions applies. Nudity is allowed to a certain degree. However people in the group seem to know each other probably because they have been in the community for a while. However this cannot be substantiated because the medium does not offer the affordance of allowing aspects of the membership to be directly observed. Like knowing how long the community has been in existing or how long one has been a member, or how long or how often one has been online. The level of comfort with which they discuss issues shows a sense of familiarity with the host, administrative and general members, there is a sense of belongingness. This is where dynamics of face to face communication comes to play as the attributes that one associates with knowing someone in the real world is transferred into the virtual sphere. Like inserting names in the middle of conversation, referencing other post or past communications, and level of exposure of ones personal life issues in the community. For example in the middle of communication someone inserts a comment like “Wife is calling its past 12am probably something waiting for me” members respond “definately, go have fun” yet he is one of the members who have a fairly decent identity in the community, he treat others with respect and he is respected as well. In order to insert that much private life into a conversation there must be a high level of familiarity with the people you are communicating with in the first place.
In order to create a an identity for myself in the community I have to be very well abreast with the kind of topics they discuss and I have to be an active contributor. Contributing not just by saying something but by saying it with as much drama as possible to make my mark since the platform allows for video, audio and chat at the same time. I think Americans dominate in the community so it has allowed for the American style of communication to dominate in the community. In order not to have a feeling of an outsider I have to adopt and tweak my language a little to make it feel natural and also not to have cultural clashes. Most people prefer the voices and video while having the platform the others just text chat and comment on what the one holding the platform is saying. My personal expression in the community aids in my identity formation. Hence in order to be a member of the community I have to be very active in the community through communication and presence. The medium announces presence once someone joined a room so that helps in making your presence known and helps in the identity creation as well hence the more you visit the room the more your presence will be announced and the more you will be noticed, your mere constant presence tacit a sense of membership but the verbal or textual input pushes more towards being a node instead of just a weak tie. Though they are a community that are very opened in discussion the name of the community suggest that there is a line one cannot cross (religious discussion) if there should be any kind of such discussion the member always has to be on the side of the community which is the Atheist, otherwise one will not be perceived as a part of the community (basic offline community rule apply online too). I Have not fully constructed an identity for myself there yet, but it is quite easy to construct an identity in that community as long as I follow the four criterias that I see are important in order to be a node in the community.
A complete profile page with a picture
Show presence in the community room frequently, perform rituals
Contribute,participate and personally express your thoughts
Acknowledge other members, Audience gratification
These four factors gives a sense of authentication, though The Atheist Coffee room expects members to not show their true identity through their names, to some degree the community expects genuineness of personality and true thoughts. They use the level of consistency in communication to judge the authenticity of an identity. I got my chance to communicate with the host of the room, I couldn't help but sort of bombard him with question about the community. Question such as how long its has been in existence? Does he know the people in the community offline? Did he start the community alone or with friends? This was not my intention when I join the community I just wanted to be there and monitor how they communicate and what makes them a community and make some few inputs. But I ended up exposing my self because being a student am there for a purpose and since I joined the community I haven't met the host so my first encounter with him I intuitively bursted out and I wanted all my questions answered with no discretion whatsoever. I did get answers to my questions, the community has been in existing for about two years, some of the people in the community are both offline and online friend. He further explained that he has made quite a few offline friends through the online community. The relationship in the community sort of blends the identities overlapping online and real world context considering the fact that the base of his community were offline friends. He remediated the offline modes (friendship) into the online sphere. His friends were the base upon which the online community was build. Had the medium or the platform given me the affordance of knowing these questions without having to ask him, I could have kept my online persona that I intended to create. I feel like they are a bit suspicious about me, can't really tell exactly what they think but I know I am a weak tie, definitely not a node. I will put in some efforts to see if I could work my way towards becoming a node in the community.
The issue of Identity is a prodigious problem in our online world. In online games people who have build good reputation for themselves in the game world, gamers sell their online ingame identities. Some game platforms forbid gamers to sell their ingame identities. But the ingame identity is for the individual he or she has spent time, energy and sometimes money to build that identity so its only natural if he want to sell it for capital gains (business) sometimes its not just business If a player seems fed up with the game he has to hand it over to someone else or delete his account, but looking back and knowing the amount of time devoted into creating that identity its hard to just throw it away so the option will be to give it to someone else but as a gamer you want to give your personality to someone who cares about the game and is a good player as well, hence the act of selling the identity goes beyond capital gains. In order for someone to buy a game identity the person must be passionate about the game and also have some expertise at least in playing the game this fulfills a gamer who want to quites wish so the selling of the account becomes a good option for a gamer. But I think the refusal for selling of ingame identities is because the game owners equate ingame identity to selling ones real world identity which is illegal. This even further blurs the line between our metaphoric characters online and our real self in a physical space and raise a more complex question such as if I create a reputable persona for myself online who owns that persona? Is it myself or the platform? Perhaps a converging technology that allows us to put all our online identities in one portfolio could be an authentic identification mechanism that will help in curbing the complexities of identity and persona authentications online.
Citation
www. paltalk.com
Papacharissi (2009) Network self: working the twittersphere
