Online vs. offline identities

In a master’s dissertation written at Georgetown University, Jessica Marie Vitak raises the question whether our traditional “offline” relationships are influenced by our online identity. A number of hypotheses were proposed and assessed in the light of data obtained in a survey about Facebook. One of those premises concerns the strength of interpersonal relationships: “In general, online relationships contain much weaker ties than offline relationships.” As common sense suggests, most of the data corroborated this hypothesis. The question then arises what the added value of Social Network Sites is if, for the greater part, we only manage to maintain those weak ties? Although SNS’s are time-consuming, they do provide us with the perfect instrument to maintain contact with acquaintances. Whereas in the past, we had to go through the trouble of writing and sending a letter, or cripple ourselves financially with long-distance calls, we can now simply “virtually hug” our recipient or post something on his “wall.”

Another interesting hypothesis refers to the discrepancy between our online and offline identity and the effects this can have in real life: “Because online identities often do not directly correlate to offline identities, offline relationships established before the online identity may suffer negative consequences.” Only a small number of respondents (13%) indicated to have been negatively affected by their or other people’s Facebook profiles. However, this can partly be attributed to the age and social composition of the group of respondents. University undergraduates have usually outgrown bullying, and are furthermore less susceptible to peer group pressure than adolescents. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, a 15 year old girl committed suicide, reportedly because she struggled with “the huge pressures placed on teenagers by social networking websites.”

SNS’s like Facebook might enable us to maintain superficial and transcontinental relationships in a playful way, but at what cost? Should we rigidly differentiate between our online and offline identity in an attempt to avoid adverse consequences?

Maarten Van Hoorickx

Sources:
Vitak, J.M., (2008). Facebook “friends”: how online identities impact offline relationships. Washington, D.C.
The Telegraph

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