Your Online Identity

            A few weeks ago, an unprecedented event in any mass communication medium occurred.  Five hundred million people logged on to Facebook within a single day.  More and more, the internet is becoming a formidable force in our day to day lives.  For the majority of internet users, it is a source of information and a quick and convenient way of getting in touch with friends and relatives.  For many of these people, it is also an extension of oneself, a kind of an online life.  In fact, I set up this blog as an extension of my professional identity. 

            For those of us who have signed in to any free internet service, creating an online identity is a must.  Whenever this happens, what many do not fully understand is that we have consequently (whether you like it or not) become a source of information for those who own these websites.  Website owners and hosts now own the information of whatever we do online , which include the sites we visit and other related information.  That is the business that they are in. 

            The phenomenon of Facebook brings this data gathering method to a whole new level.  When we connect with friends on this site, liking or disliking posts made by these connections; in fact, all our activities within this site are all data.  Now, they are mainly used for targeted advertising.  The ads we see on our screen are not random; they are the services and products in which the demographic we represent are likely to be interested.  Simply put, they use the information we give to them so they can try to sell something to us. 

            Another concern is protecting our privacy.  When we create an account with any free internet service, we are signing terms that might compromise your privacy.  For instance, unless we meticulously specify through our settings that we want to keep our privacy, any picture posted on Facebook becomes public property and anybody can download them and use them for any purpose they so please.  And so, many of my techie friends actually advise me to read the terms of agreement first before signing in to any web service.  And yet, many of us do not care to go through these long documents more carefully. 

            I felt the need to write this entry because all too often we are not so mindful about what we post online, whether that is an innocuous comment or a frivolous picture we took.  Just like in our daily lives, we do need to be prudent about what we put out there for all to see.  Ultimately, the data we upload is stored in a hard drive likely to be halfway across the world.  We have no control over it, and deleting information may not automatically erase it.  The written word is said to be powerful because of its staying power.  After all, all data from any website are presumably regularly backed up for security purposes. 

            In the end, we need to remember that the internet is a form of mass communication.  In fact, it has democratized the power of the written word.  It is a wonderful tool that we should all use.  In fact, that is what I harness when I put out a blog like this.  But at the same time, we need to be judicious in its use as well.  I invite all of us to think of it as appearing on television or being interviewed on the radio.  What would you be willing to say in these more traditional broadcast media?  I think we should think similarly about the internet.