On the early web, anonymity and pseudonymity
were both accepted and expected (Christopherson, 2007). Today, our social web
is a very different place, where users expect “authenticity” from one another (Lim
et al., 2015), and major social networking services are policed by strict “real
name” policies (Chen, 2018). Facebook, a social networking service with 2.5
billion monthly active users (Hutchinson, 2020), was an early implementer of real
name policy, and continues to use it to police users Read more [...]
Tag: pseudonymity
Abstract
What is identity, one may ask can be quite tricky to define as there is no end spectrum when defining this concept. In fact, it is not uncommon for most people to come across questions like ‘Who am I’ or ‘Where do I belong’ at a certain point in life which furthermore imply the complexity of identity and continues to evolve as one progresses through life. The purpose of this paper concerns the multiple facade of identity found in virtual platforms where it aims to explore the Read more [...]
Abstract
This paper seeks to analyse the activities and
behaviours that users engage in to construct identities within online mental
health communities. I argue that these communities encourage users to identify
with their mental illnesses, with the potential to improve or worsen their
mental wellbeing. The paper begins by discussing mental health diagnoses as a
tool used to define and confirm identity in online mental health communities.
Following this is an analysis of the potential for anonymity Read more [...]