Readings:
[1] Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community
Summary:
In this paper author shreds lights on peoples identity in the virtual world and physical world by highlighting their behavior, motivation, gains, etc. The author goes on to talk about trust circles, deception, identification of signals, and physical cues and also expresses how the absence of physical cues is going against human instincts and is giving rise to new problems that need immediate understanding. The author uses Usenet newsgroup as her muse to explain various concepts such as deception, honesty, trust, identity concealment, trolls, etc. The author elucidates various psychological and sociological derivations that the humans make via physical interaction, that are not possible to derive in the virtual world — resulting in negative consequences.
Reflection:
This paper sprouted a lot of issues regarding identity, trust, and deception that really got me thinking about societal impact of social media, and how it has changed the way we interact with others in real world, and also perceive the events that occur in real world. It also got me thinking about how social media has resulted in elimination of loneliness for elderly people but also given birth to the problem for younger generation. The paper also got me thinking about motivating factors for online deception, other than monetary gain, personal vendetta, political gain, and political/international/corporate espionage.
Questions:
- How does creating multiple fake social media accounts(assuming all social media accounts have different personas) impact the progenitors self identity? Does it lead to identity crisis? Does it lead to other behavioral changes in the progenitor in the real world ?
- How quickly do the AI tools need to find and delete fake accounts ? Is it possible to stop the creation of fake accounts?
- As pointed out by the author, interacting in the virtual world requires some degree of trust, how does this impact people’s behavior in real world ? Do people become more or less skeptical of each other?
- Extended interaction in virtual world leads to physical isolation causing more serious underlying behavioral and psychological problems. What can internet giants do to tackle this problem?
- What are the harmful consequences of deception in the online world and how does it effect peoples psychology if they find out they have been deceived ?
- Why do people make adjustments in self-presentation in real life ? If we are adjusting our behavior according to the receiver, is it still us ?
[2] 4chan and /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community
Summary:
The author of this paper makes ephemerality and anonymity the focal-point of the paper. The author dives deep into understanding the design of ephemeral and anonymous community — 4chan. To back its point of view, the author performed content analysis on threads on /b/. The author also elaborated on how anonymity effects online communities, in addition to their users. The author goes on to talk about how the design of a lot online communities goes against evolution. The author argues that anonymity and ephemerality increases equity in the community, fosters stronger communal identity as opposed to “bond-based attachment with individuals.”
Reflection:
Whilst reading the paper I gained perspective into how ephemerality in online communities mimics real life situations, and social media platforms with more cemented content go against the social norms in our physical world. I think in order to perfectly emulate our physical world, a social media platform/ virtual community needs combination of identity and ephemerality. The author says that anonymity can result in stronger sense of community, but I would like to argue that anonymity proliferates herd-mentality and puts into questions the basis of our physical community — ethics, morals, and mutual trust of individuals. Trusting anonymous individuals would could also result in self-doubt, according to me.
Questions:
- What drives people towards anonymous forums ? In forums where anonymity is optional, why do people chose to being anonymous over being self-identified ?
- How does anonymity strengthen communal identity ?
- Does identity based reputation lead to pro-social behavior or sets up the stage for cyber bullying ?
