We define this ID, or username, when we first join those sites, followed by a long list that includes a password, a birthdate, a gender, an address, a question for your password, an email address (twice), and a repeat-after-me sort of thing where we prove that we are human beings rather than hacking tools. All this following data will be, after you sign up, a way for the servers and machines to define who you are; it will be their perception of you.
Yahoo's perception is often user based content*. This means that it shows ads, content, and news, based on the account information it has. If the account is set to male, it often will show the user a sports or car related content before the ones about pop stars or new fashion trends. However, there are many issues that Yahoo will run into before they make a successful appeal based on the account information they have. First, they cannot tell if their perception is true. Users can afterall, choose to lie on the web.** Second, they cannot tell if their perception matches the identity. For example, a women can be interested in sports and a man might be interested in fashion.
 |
| Yahoo thinks that I like cars since I am a man. |
This is the difference between identity and perception. Perceptions are made by other people other than yourself. Identity, however, is a definition of yourself defined by yourself. This is just like websites. You choose your own ID for the internet, and the internet chooses its perception based on the information you give them. You can change these perceptions under the 'account settings' button, but you can never change your ID.
*Yahoo in certain countries do not use this feature. While Yahoo Korea, Yahoo Japan, Baidu, Naver, QQ and several other Asian based web portals uses it for sure, Yahoo Korea closed down at the end of 2012. Furthermore, many of these search engines and web portals now also analyze the trend in the user search queries to find the best appealing contents and ads.
**This is becoming an increasing problem in Asia. "“Nekama” means male participants who represent
themselves as females on the Net" (http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/~ethicj/asai.pdf)
I like the connection between the ID we use online and our identity in real life. I never really took them to mean the same thing but they do represent us. I like your definitions of perception and identity. I can see the way yahoo classifies you and relate it to how G-mail and other engines use your profile to designate you into certain classes. Overall, I liked your post; it was insightful.
ReplyDeleteI liked this post because it connected such an abstract concept with something familiar to all of us :)
ReplyDeleteYou have a nice point about the differences between perception and identity, but this brings up another point. As you (to use your metaphor) continue to make more choices with your yahoo account (or more importantly, as you give Yahoo more information), it's perception of you gets closer and closer to the truth (and its advertisements reflect what you want more closely). So perhaps what you call your identity is more like the most accurate perception of yourself available -- it is the perception of you based upon the information you have on yourself (which is hopefully more information than anyone else has on you).
ReplyDeleteHi, Warren. There really is a discrepancy between our online identities and ourselves. Which is why I love Quora a lot. It requires that users use their real names and often connects people's Facebook accounts to their Quora accounts, which results in better, more thoughtful content. When people are forced to use their real names, they are forced to consider the perception that others have of them and how to maintain that perception. This keys into their own idea of themselves, or their identity. Also, I must disagree a little with Nick's point. I've often found that people's self-perceptions are frequently distorted by their own insecurities and biases that blind themselves to the true character of their identities. Or they're just too lazy to consider their own beings. Who better to define myself? Certainly not me.
ReplyDelete