Online Identity

1. How many online identities do you have? What are they like?

I have lots of online identities such as forum, facebook, MSN, ICQ, e-mail, youtube and xanga.
2. In what ways are they different to your "in person" identities?

There are lots of differences to my "in person' identities. As these identities are not the real identity, therefore I can express my own feeling freely. It's so different to my real personality, I am too shy to express my own feelings in the real life. Sometimes, I won't show my gender, even I will change my gender to male.

3. What are some benefits of expressing one's identity online?

These identities are benefit for me to do many things. For example, I can talk with my friends through MSN, ICQ and facebook, it is quite convenient for me to talk on internet and won't need to holding the phone to talk with them. Besides, I can communicate with strangers and share somethings that I won't have brave to talk in reality.

4. What are some risks?

To me, I will consider the privacy. When we create an account on some forum even msn, these website may require us to provide our personal information such as real name, telephone number even address. For example, the most popular website - facebook also have this problem. According to kurtvonmoos.com, it reported that "Facebook is import all the names and phone numbers from your phone’s address book and upload them to your Facebook Phonebook app on Facebook.com."

References link: http://kurtvonmoos.com/facebook_steals_contact_info/