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 Net Identity:“Identity Crisis: Defining Self and Netizenship” Nick HadfieldETEC 511 November 23, 2005I am a technophile. I am over 21, over 25, under 65, married, employed, Canadian,extr overted, and opinionated. Various aspects of my identity show themselves throughoutmy day, whether I am online or interacting with people face to face. Our real identities, or “self”, are worked out each day as we interact with people and are constantly beingadjusted as a result of how others respond to our words and actions. Net identity, however,is an illusion of the real identity. It can be a mirror image showing others a vision of thereal you, a shadow of your darker side, or an imaginative persona that you create, muchlike an author creates a literary character. Confusion over net identity and its ability torepresent real identities in an online world has brought about an identity crisis. The currentsystem fragments net identity into many individual parts, and holds them completelyseparate. Net identity needs to evolve to incorporate the fragmented identities into a“whole” to increase reliability and security and to allow for more seamless webinteractions. The race is now on to see who will control your internet identity.
What is Identity?
i·den·ti·ty:
The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.
(Dictionary.com) As we grow from adolescence to adulthood we begin to discover who we are andwho we want to be (Gray 1991, p. 475). Our personal identity forms as a result of suchcharacteristics as our appearance, wealth, ethnic background and religion; many factors
 
make up your “self.” Some of the main determining factors of our identity comes not fromthe choices that we make, but rather from biological factors such as being either male or female. Our “self” comes from both biological factors that determine who we are, such as being male or female, tall or short, skinny or muscular, as well as social factors like our interests, education, friendships, and life experiences. A third component of our identitycomes from what others say about us: are we thoughtful, tactful, charming, charismatic, boastful, or trustworthy? To compound the complexity of identity even further, we mayhave an identity that we show at work to other colleagues, another at home to familymembers, and still another at church.Much like your real-world psychological identity, your net identity also has manyfacets that compose the whole. In the real world personal interactions help give people asense of who you are, your trustworthiness, your interests, etc., but on the internet there areno face-to-face interactions, making net identity illusive. Net identity does not have to bethe same as the real world, and we are free to choose any identity. Whatever persona youdecide can become your net identity. You get to start anew and reinvent your “self”. Whatyour net identity will become is based more on freedom and choice than on pre-determinedfactors. Without the pressures of interacting with someone face-to-face revealing your identity, your net identity is more flexible. Similar to your sex being biologicallydetermined, some aspects of your identity are predetermined because they are hardware based. Your net identity is therefore quite complex, with some of your identity being predetermined by the hardware you use. Other parts are more user-centered that can bedeveloped or created by the individual over time, and other parts are based on what otherssay about you and the impression you leave behind.
 
Hardware Centered Identity
When the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) started filing motionsin court to get certain internet users identified, net anonymity took a serious blow. With thecourt ruling, the RIAA forced internet service providers to provide the personal informationof certain IP addresses that they had monitored downloading protected content (McCullagh,2004). This internet protocol address (IP) registers the computer visible on the internet,and is provided by the company that the user is paying for their internet service such asShaw, Rogers, or AOL. When users wish to connect to the internet, they provide their  billing information to the service provider, who then connects their computer and providesan IP address whenever the computer is logged on to the internet. This part of net identityis closest to what in real life is biologically determined; it is difficult to change or hide andis available for everyone to see. Every computer on the internet is assigned IP addresses tolocate them: Amazon.com is 207.171.166.102, Flickr is 68.142.214.24, and I am writingfrom 207.102.81.4. Net identity problems arise, however, because IP addresses are assigned tocomputers, not to people. All internet activity by the computer is logged by the internetservice provider, but not who is using the computer. There is no reliable system as yet toconfirm the identity of the user. We have no system of fingerprint or retinal scans beforelogging onto the internet, just usernames and passwords. Because the IP address ismistakenly associated with an individual and not a computer, net identity problems havearisen; the RIAA has sued households based on the internet use of children who normallycould not be sued under the law (Borland, 2003). To make the issue of net identity evenmore difficult, computers may be infected by a “worm” that takes control of the computer and allows a third party (such as a hacker) to remotely control the computer to send or 
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