Identity and Ethics

Is withholding one’s identity ethically wrong?

Unfortunately in this day and age, there is a need for caution when it comes providing other people with you identity. Due to amount of Identity faud taking place, I am much more likely to be careful about the numerous websites that ask so many questions about yourself. Why do some of these companies need your Full Name, Age, date of birth, current address & even some companies ask for information on your earnings and parents earnings. Also the fact that some websites arent completely offical and are quite often fakes or companies of an original , therefore I do think there is a need to be cautious with how much information you provide people you dont know.

However, I think it's wrong to pretend to be someone your not, or in the case of chatrooms. Pretending to be a different age, or sex to manipulate other people using the same services, and encouraging them to give you their details. Its tough to know where to stand when it comes to the internet, theres a fine line between using the internet as a means of escapism and a means of gaining control.

Many people use the internet as a way of dating and meeting new people, whilst this is very much a postitive attibute of the internet, as means people are opening up to the bigger world and perhaps educating themselves, it also gives them the chance to build a image of what they really want to look like, act like or even adopt the personalitys of people they know and want to be like, rather than being themselves. This 'mask' allows people to develop a distance from the real world and the virtual world of the internet.

Do you think that assuming an online persona encourages people to play with the identity they present online.

Yes!!! I think that the availability of numerous websites of differing styles allow people to not only express their true self but also perhaps the self they'd like to be or want others to think they are. For example on Facebook, you have the choice of who you add as your friends and you also have the option to change your everyday status of who your feeling or what you doing.
However also websites such Gaydar and similar specifically designed websites allow people that would not normally express their true self in real life in worry that they may be discriminated against, can communicate and express themselves more freely and prehaps with this take more risks than they would do in real life.

Lister refers to similar topics such as the expression of self 'social networks and peer to peer network sharing' and one of his most important points of how the internet "breaks the connection between outward expression of identity and physical body"