Internet, privacy & image: how real are identities on the internet?

Is the Communication in “real” life better and more genuine than the one in Internet? The discussion about Facebook, Fakenewsund Privacy may suggest this. But is that really true?

Identities on the net - playing with the fake news

Of course it is easier to hide behind a role on the internet. However, at least as much to the falsification contributes to the perception of the opposite. Fakenews are not a completely new invention.

Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari was the flagship blogger from regime-oppressed Syria in 2011: the lesbian Boy Frau reported directly about the unrest in her homeland. Until she was picked up by Syrian police forces and disappeared, according to her blog. But none of that was true. In reality, a 40-year-old married white American studying in Edinburgh, Scotland, had posed as Amina. He wanted to support the dissidents in Syria with the fake blog. In the end, the IP of his betrayed him eMail-Address.

Apart from the fact that he made the real Syrian sources less credible with this deception, the story shows one thing above all: how light it is, on the internet, at least for some time, to spoof one's identity. However, it is not the case that there are mainly fake identities on the Internet. As already stated, most people act roughly congruently with their real ones Personality – even if some of them use a pseudonym.

How real are you with “tinsel”?

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2011 the event advanced "What's happening? Love.”To one of the big crowd pullers at the blogger conference re: publica 2011. Probably because it was about a topic that everyone can have a say in: love and flirting. What was really exciting, however, was the discussion between Daniel Decker, active on Twitter as @kotzend_einhorn, and moderator Teresa Bücker about role play and communication behavior on Twitter.

While Bücker took the view that people who are very smart on Twitter nice and eloquent, which are usually also in reality, Decker had had other experiences: The self-confessed phone muffle can express himself much better in writing than verbally and therefore had to listen to the following after successfully initiating contact on the Internet: "You're much funnier on Twitter... somehow you are You're a whole different person."

On Twitter you are much funnier

His explanation for this:

“Even if you act under your real name on the Internet and hide as little as possible, it is of course still the case that you [...] create a character. This can of course also happen in real life. But the difference is that on Twitter, before the first meeting, you exchanged much more intimate and much more extensive exchanges than when you meet at a party like this. That's why the image that the other person has already made is completely different. "

And he disillusioned finds that between the communication on Twitter and in real life, but there are big differences: Twitter, so his experience, just is not the chance for timid to find the life partner.

We all get a picture

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That's the whole point: people form an image of the other when they talk to him. The image is made up of what someone says - but unconsciously also of the gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice voice. Exactly these features are missing in communication in social networks, because in social media one usually communicates in writing. As a result, however, we are missing important information that our interlocutors unconsciously communicate to us in personal dialogue through voice, gestures and facial expressions.

In 1967, the American psychologist Albert Mehrabian found out in two studies that the Effect message only 7 percent depends on the content of what is said. 55 percent are through the body language determined and 38 percent by voice, intonation, intonation and articulation. But what to do if we lack this 93 percent of communication - for example, if we just tweet with people or on Facebook chat instead of talking to you personally? Then we have to think about this information and, whether we like it or not, we may tend to form an image that has little or nothing to do with reality - depending on how well we really know the person we are talking to.

Therefore, social networks should always only be part of our communication - they should not replace personal communication. If this does happen, there is a risk that, whether they intend to do so or not, we will get a completely wrong impression of our interlocutors. How much the image that people give of themselves on the internet differs from real people obviously depends heavily on the personal image satisfaction .

Can the online identity make our offline self happier?

The media psychologists Sabine Trepte and Leonard Reinecke from the Hamburg Media School have in several studies selection of avatars in computer games. The data shows that most people tend to give their avatars positive masculine characteristics, such as size and strength, in game scenarios with male requirements. In game scenarios with a female requirement profile, on the other hand, predominate positive female Characteristics. However, the subjects generally preferred same-sex avatars.

And: The happier a person is with themselves, the more their avatar resembles them. On the other hand, those who are rather unhappy with their lives paint their virtual ones Welt all the more beautiful - and the more his avatar differs from his own person.

Online behavior affects one's own personality

Vice versa act surprisingly, but also avatars and Online-Behavior on their own personality: Trepte and Reinecke also found out that people who reveal a lot about themselves on social networks are more open and communicative in real life after just six months and also have more friends.

The results of the Hong Kong Chinese Nick Yee go in a similar direction: As part of his dissertation at Stanford University he proved that people who have a particularly good looking and are therefore more successful with the opposite sex Age Having an ego on the internet, and at some point in real life, being more open with yours privacy and also tend to have sexual contacts more quickly. Apparently she has the onlineSuccess braver towards other people.

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