Real Life Identity
Since the dawning of the social networking site, people have crafted online identities for themselves. It is a form of escape for the masses, and is used by nearly everyone due to its widely free state. That’s right, communication for free. These sites have no one time charge, no monthly charge, and no fees at all, what they get by is the prevalence of advertisements on their site. Any user of the social networking site can vouch for the fact that there are quite a few ads on every page, and that you usually have to click through one to get to the next page. These sites often have their own little world created by the users too; complete with its own language and celebrities. Their vernacular consists of many abbreviations of language, many phrases with all capital letters, and quite a bit of slang. Their celebrities are just every day people though. Many bands who start out playing in garages can come to selling out arenas due to their popularity on MySpace. Many people can become famous e-stars because of their online hilarity or brashness.
One such superhero is the “PittGirl” of Pittsburgh. This fiery user was an online hit due to her frankness in talking about Pittsburgh’s mayor and her disdain for him, and even more famous for her extended rants about the evils of pigeons. Her spark and her non-inhibited sense of writing made her a complete Internet celebrity, although everyone wondered about her identity. After many people attempted to crack it, she simply came out herself; listing name, occupation, and even posting some pictures of herself on her blog.
Many people worry about their true identities becoming known on the Internet; and it truly is a danger. To a person like PittGirl, it was dangerous to her job, (she was fired shortly thereafter) her Internet status, and her safety. (She received many threats from angry people, and reportedly from the mayor himself due to her stance against him) Due to her strong beliefs about the local politics of Pittsburgh, she was essentially blacklisted from all city jobs due to her history of online insubordination.
Some people argue that all bloggers should remain anonymous, and this is a valid case. Many injustices can happen to an individual due to their identity is compromised. Their online identity and persona allows them to say what they feel and think without worrying about what repercussions will come in real life. PittGirl wasn’t harming anyone without her posts against the mayor; she never threatened him or anything like that, yet she was fired for “unrelated reasons” from her job, and is now having trouble getting one in and around Pittsburgh.
The point is, no ones real name or location should be revealed online. An IP changer can ensure this doesn’t happen by changing your IP address, which stops anyone from trailing your Internet signal to your real life location.
