Communities in Cyberspace

Identity and deception in the virtual community

Judith S. Donath

• Identity is essential for understanding and evaluating communication.
• Yet it is also ambiguous
• Many of the traditional markers of identity are absent
• One body = one identity
• There are signals of false or fake identity
• These may become clearer over time
• Assessment signals - signals we use to judge something. A large bouncer in a bar signals strength. Assessment signals are reliable because the sender must possess a certain trait for us to believe it.
  
• E.g. a CV. An impressive job history can be written down without actually experiencing it. Statements made during interview conditions are ASSESSMENT signals - one would have to exemplify their knowledge.
• So it is quicker and easier to judge an applicant by the CV
• BUT the chances of deception are higher
• It is worth making the extra effort to interview a candidate because it will save the company money/time in the long term.
• Consequences - lying for a waitressing job is less serious than lying about having extensive medical experience
• Interpreting cyberspace is harder than every-day physical encounters with people
• Basic ID:
• The account name - often an email address
• This can validate/void an identity - a post describing the corporate responsibility of a company has more influence - validity - if it is from an email address of that company (email@thecompany.com) than if it comes from a free email provider like google or hotmail.
  
• Presumptions may be made on the email address. I remember seeing an email from a large communications company to some temp staff who had completed a short-term job for them. The emails had been provided in the application stage. Most receivers' emails were along the lines of "firstname.surname@somewhere.com", but one was "iamastudmuffin@freeemail.com", which seemed a little informal for a professional work context.
  
• Voice and Language:
• Two forms off expression, those that are intentionally "given" and those that are accidentally "given off"
• Writing "I am female" is easy, it is much harder for a man to sustain a voice and reactions of a female.
• It is easy to use alternate email addresses, but linguistic traits are harder to disguise
• Language adapts to use - online, many people use "text speak", which comes from text messages (which used to be charged on a per character basis - therefore "u" costs a third of "you"). Abbriviations are often used for common phrases LOL (laugh out loud), WTF (what the fuck), OMG (oh my god), AFK (away from keyboard), etc - yes that was deliberate! Now, this is often mimicked by "older" members of communities (it tends to be younger and more inexperienced internet users that use these abbreviations) - "OMGWTFBBQ!" is one of the examples
• "localised" abbreviations often occur too - the author of this book uses the examples of MOB (mother of the bride) and ONNA (oh no not again!) from a pregnancy related chatroom. I frequently shorten my website name (kiss-my-art) to KMA when I'm "talking" to someone over the internet, and this is true of many of my website/design projects. The same is true of other online communities - members of deviantart.com will know that DA is a shortening of the website name.
• Another example the author gives is the use of the caps lock. WhErE wOrDs aRe TyPeD lIkE tHiS, a way of identification for a certain group of people. Which in my opinion is stupid - it takes about 3 times as long to write! Users are also berated for TYPING EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS, the online equivalent of shouting. When I'm chatting online, I find myself apologising for typing things in capitals by accident, like it might offend someone!
  
• Signatures:
• Most deliberate statement of identity
• An electronic business card
• Trolls - people looking to start and argument or flame war on a board.
• Category deception - gives the impression of being a particular type of person to manipulate people's interpretations.
• Deception is only spotted when the actions of the troll and the expectation of the audience are strongly at odds with each other.
• "Compared to the physical world, it is relatively easy to pass as someone else online since there are relatively few identity cues.
• Identity can be stolen just by using someone's name to make a post - an identity thief doesn't even have to go as far as copying someone's writing style.
• Individual identity deceptions are often omissions, not commissions
  
• A common reason for using a pseudonym is privacy concerns
• the internet is an open space, and you cannot control what other people are reading
• Who uses pseudonyms?
• people who are embarrassed by the content of their message
• People who are posting personal data
• People who are posting about illegal activities.
• Being able to track someone's activity online isn't necessarily a bad thing
• it can help online communities gain a better understanding of the person
• Identity is no longer one sided
• However, this might mean that people are more careful to manage their online persona, maybe using multiple identities
• Web based homepage presents a crafted self presentation
• shows how one wants to appear - this can be quite revealing in itself
• e.g. knowing someone's real physical appearance and seeing their description of themselves.
• It is easy to discard and online persona
• but many people become attached to them and don't want to throw them away