Summary:
The first article “An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community” analyzes the online community 4chan’s and its’ discussion board “/b/”. It focuses on the board’s design choices of online ephemerality and anonymity, and how they influence its culture. 4chan is an image-based bulletin board where users can post comments and images about a variety of topics. A content analysis was performed on the /b/ discussion board, showing the effects of being able to post anonymously on a large scale. Being able to be anonymous increases creativity and stronger community identity, but loses credibility and communication can be impersonal. The ability of online ephemerality is rare in the evolving online community we live in today; almost everything we do stays on the internet forever.
The second article “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community” is focused on how identity is defined in an online community and the effects of identity deception and the conditions that structure it. The article studies Usenet newsgroups, which is an information exchange. People feel the need to help others by answering questions and providing knowledge. Having an identity is critical to gaining a reputation and credibility. The article also goes into deception, and why people feel the need to deceive others. Assessment signals and conventional signals are used in the Handicap Principle, which models the relation between deception and honesty.
Reflection:
Having the ability to post anonymously online is extremely dangerous. When no one can be held accountable for their actions, there are no repercussions for wrong doing online. Due to being anonymous, there is no way to guarantee the legitimacy of the information. Most information that is online, unless coming from a credible source, is incorrect in some form. I think that in order for information to be posted in an answer to a question, we should develop an efficient way to check the credibility of the source. People are more likely to believe information if it comes from a credible source, but the only way to accomplish this is to have an identity. Before reading these articles, I did not understand the true importance of having an online identity. Different personas can be created easily, so it’s hard to know exactly who each person is in real life. Although being able to talk freely increases creativity online, sometimes it may do more harm than good.
Questions:
Is there already an efficient way for people to check the credibility of a source?
What is the psychological reasoning behind deception?
In what other ways does deception play a role in online social media sites?
