Category: edci335

Social media is one of the tools that helps us to connect to others on a broad sense. Besides, social media outweighs other ways to networks, thanks to its ability to reveal information that is attached to users that own social media accounts. At this point social media plays an important role to find like-minded people even before starting a conversation, perhaps it would be used as an icebreaking in the presence of a dialogue. On the other hand, social media offers us lifelong learning since the amount of information and people we can reach out is to almost limitless that sparks our curiosity to make a connection between what is derived from the social media 

Acknowledging the strengths of the social media that is built on a network brings so many people from different backgrounds, areas of interest and professionals is one of the main motivations for participating in networked publics.  This specific benefit that motivates most people underlies behalf of the three psychological needs which are explained by meeting 1)relatedness; the need of connecting to others, 2)competence; the need of finding a challenge where difficulty and skills match and finally 3) autonomy; the need of choosing between options with free will. Furthermore, using social media enables participating in public networks to fulfill psychological needs that are motivated through connecting to meaningful either individuals or groups where we can seek self-growth, which could happen both in a leisure way or professional way as a result of our choices.

Digital Identity, which is a developed form of our identity in society, reveals what belongs to us that gives information about who we are on social media accounts that are mostly available to others. What is more, digital identity is a representation of our identity how we construct it and how it is seen from the outside in addition to what we think that people think of our identity; beliefs, values, interests, and relationships when looking at our social media accounts through online interactions

Although, there are similar values that the two focus group share some differences are present due to different motivations behind benefiting from using social media accounts. First, Professionals seek growth in the area of work field besides personal growth. As a result of the need for the climbing career steps, professionals seek connections which could be turned into intangible resources when you most need them. So, maintaining these relationships through meaningful interactions is required for information exchange . In a nutshell, constructing, dedicating time and mental effort and enabling personal learning networks (PLN) are essential for this focus group. On the other hand, personal approaches to digital identity are more focused on personal gains.

Moreover, countless benefits are available although some of the impacts are out there such as privacy and securement issues. Starting from one of the well-known benefits, the community has a lot to offer that helps individuals to find people who share similar interests. For instance, when connecting to someone on social media accounts, the first thing we notice is whether this person knows someone you know or specific accounts that people choose to follow. Second, a quality filter is another benefit of networks in the public that reveals the quality of the possible connection from a broader sense to a specific one as a result of certain tastes or connections where only a specific professional or skill set enables these connections. For instance, seeing a specific certificate in a work field or membership to an organization tells more about the quality of the digital identity moreover revealing a vision fit. In a nutshell, the main benefits of networking through social media accounts that our digital identities are attached to are getting familiar with each other’s backgrounds & specific areas of interest and processing this information to establish connections that serve the need for personal growth. In fact, most of the time, public networks save time and energy as a result of a quick way to obtain information related to what we seek. On the other hand, some potential harms can occur through virtual interactions based on our digital identity on social media accounts open to the public.

 One phenome in social psychology, social learning theory implies identity formation through our interactions with peers, family and the people that we are surrounded by in our environment. likely, our interactions with others through social media accounts impact our identity development based on whom we are interacting with. In this case, the relationship that is established based on the data on the showcase that is put nicely can lead us to wrong assumptions of the quality and like-minded state that could harm us. In addition, while the social learning process is happening the mimicking is likely to be fractured that lacks authenticity when we see only the visible part of the iceberg while being far away from the reality, the unseen part of the iceberg which is the big part. More, our data of us our, in other words, our digital identity is one click away of stolen or getting lost in the country of people who are defending our digital identity is far more secure than our identity in governments serves us to have easy access to services such as financial (opening a bank account online, easy cash transfers)  or social support services of the government (digital signing, residency). Last but not least, by enabling more data input to our digital identity through public networks, we violate the right of others to keep their information secure through the photos we share, using their names in our published stories and even any type of information related to others they might uncomfortable to share. Needless to say, the more time spent on social media can shadow the real interactions through physical environments, events, gatherings and places for socializing, threatening the well-being of users which if not balanced can lead to problems near countless benefits of our digital identity. 

To sum up, the concern arises around the dual use of technology and misuse confronted by decreasing the labour work, increasing the time we have and managing the risk of privacy & security. Quality of digital identity must be equal by enabling the internet to everyone while only fifty percent of the world population has access to back in 2019 it depends on the level of development of the countries, differences in socio-economical levels and even differences among sexes and races yet Over 60 percent of the global GDP is expected to be digitalized by 2022 makes the idea of how we build and consume Digital identities determines how people are represented even more valuable.