Summary
In “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community,” the article discusses how disjoint we are from our actual personalities in an “anonymous” space. Specifically online where others may latch on to other defining features of your online persona in order to identify you or how they expect you to act (i.e. a goofy avatar, your writing style). Usenet was this article’s example of choice. It then took on a signalers and recievers model to explain this honesty and deception similar to how biologists and game theorists will analyze interplay between truthfulness and deceit in a communication system. Assessment signals, were ones that followed Zahavi’s Handicap principle, where a user must possess a trait to send the signal. However those that do not follow the handicap principle are called conventional signals. These are the ones where it is open to deception and manipulation. In most cases conventional signals would cost less to send than assessment and can easily be used by trolls and catfishers in an online environment.
In “4chan and /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community” 4chan, an online messaging board, was examined. More specifically /b/, one of the more notorious sections of the site. The article then examines what sort of role the anonymity and ephemeral nature of the posts plays in what users are willing to create and distribute on the site. The anonymity has also cultivated a culture within users of the site, although the culture it has created is not exactly good by any measure the anonymity has created camaraderie amongst the anons.
Reflections
The article “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community” really highlighted that online we can be whoever we want to be. We can claim expertise in areas where we have none. We can fabricate experiences that we’ve never had. In fact some people will even create multiple accounts, like troll or smurf accounts, online to cater to their other preferences. It can provide leeway for users to do and say things they’d never do in real life but also create a safe buffer for those who are less outgoing or more concerned to join in discussions freely.
The fast pace nature of 4chan is pretty well known and in most cases not for a good thing. I found it interesting that ephemerality was studied as it didn’t take into account the fact that many threads are archived via users. The distribution of content through anonymity was also interesting to see as requests and discussions, which I perceived as being the majority of the content, were much smaller in terms of presence.
Questions
What drives others to create malicious personas?
Is deception always for the worst in online environments or is that all that we hear about?
Why is it important to maintain ephemerality in an online to some?
Anonymity online is often very shallow so why does it give others so much confidence?
