With the emergence of diverse and popular web 2.0 social networking services (SNSs) such as last.fm, LinkedIn and Facebook, the online identities of many individuals have transitioned from the hidden, private spaces of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) and have shifted to the public domain where personal information is openly visible and readily accessible to the greater online community (boyd, 2007, p.2). This paper will examine identity in its multi-faceted, post-modern form and discuss the role it played within the initial, virtual communities of the World Wide Web (Turkle, 1997a, p.159). Following on, the essay will describe the characteristics of Web 2.0 SNSs and contrast it with preceding MUDs and virtual communities. I will examine identity and its private to public evolution and argue that although SNSs promote open, public information, due to their context and audience they construct fractured and in some instances, multiple extensions of the self. Due to the nature of SNSs, if these facets are to be viewed solely and unparalleled they could easily be taken out of context and reflect a distorted view which does not represent a true reflection of the individual (Donath, 1999, p.29). To contextualise, this essay will use the perspective of a potential employer or recruiter to demonstrate how easily a candidate’s digital identity within the above SNSs can be misinterpreted and what factors from each of these SNSs contributed to it.
