Over the course of the past few months since I began this blog I’ve been learning so much! My perspective of blogging has definitely shifted and has come to a point where I believe that at times a blogger is blogging to teach others what they, themselves, are trying to learn. Now I’m no expert on tech or life, but I am becoming an expert on learning and sharing what I learn 🙂 Case in point, I’ve learned that there is a difference between digital and online identities.
How many knew there was a difference? Go ahead and raise your hands…Or if you want to feel smart raise your hand anyway 🙂
Well I thought, that they were interchangeable. However, there is a difference! But if you thought the way I did, then be comforted, because we are not alone! A majority of people use them interchangeably when in fact they are different.
It all triggered when I got my program review back from NASPA for the Annual Conference. Now, I didn’t get accepted, but it was totally worth it cause in the long run I learned something 🙂 The reviewer made a comment that they did not know what digital identity was, but if I could develop my program further, next year would be a great year to resubmit. Now what triggered my lesson was that the individual had never heard of digital identity before. Now, having a low sense of self confidence, I panicked and thought I might have created a term that didn’t make sense, so I Googled “digital identity definition” and hence my lesson about the differences in digital identity and online identity.
Lesson:
Digital identities are the identities we create for our online presence. Digital identities can be anything from a username, password, social security number, twitter handle; its the data we use to establish ourselves in the digital world. Our online identities are the personas and characters that we create using digital identities in order to reflect who we are, be it via avatars or profiles.
Examples:
Twitter:
@bdproffer = digital identity
social media guru, student affairs professional = online identity
Facebook:
briandavidmichaelproffer = digital identity
Kappa Sigma, LGBT advocate = online identity
Kinda cool right? 🙂
So, if you hear people using the two interchangeably, you can educate them on the difference now 🙂
Until next time!
Peace, Love and Pandas!
Hello World, Its Me, Brian 