by Sam K

There are some computer games that have internet access. In most of those games, guess what people do? They swear. Now even though they know its bad, they still do it. Luckily for those people that don’t swear the computer automatically covers up the swear words or words and turns them into symbols like a dollar sign or an exclamation point. Want to know something? There are even some people who act the opposite when they are on the internet then when they are in the real world. Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about some issues related to Digital Identity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_identity
What is Digital Identity? “Digital Identity is an aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the connection of people’s experience of their real life identity and the identity of other people online”. Digital Identity opens a door that when people go through it makes them act worse than they are. My personal thought is that this is bad because when the people go through that door it makes them worse not better and the world needs those people to get better not worse. If anything could be done to prevent these kinds of actions, it would be that all the websites that were the source of the bad behavior should be deleted or they could be given redirection to a special manner website that teaches them… Netiquette! Warning: if the sources of the bad stuff should be deleted, it will greatly affect freedom of speech in a negative way.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9896576-7.html
Chinese authorities in the Beijing University area put a ban on online bad behavior. Examples of such bad behavior are online swearing and rumor spreading. The authorities shut down the websites responsible for the bad behavior. I personally think that that this is a good way to stop online bad behavior, but I also see a disadvantage to this method. The good side to this is that it prevents online bad behavior such as swearing and rumor spreading, but the bad side to it is that even though it’s preventing this kind of stuff it limits the freedom of speech those that go online.

http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/jun/09manners.htm
There are some people that think that people who chat online should spread their politeness beyond the dining table and to the online world of the internet. Some people listen to this and some don’t. Those who don’t often act strange or odd when they are in their chatting areas. Some examples of being strange while chatting are using all capital letters or pausing a lot while those people are chatting. There are people out there like Virginia Shea who has a manner website that teaches Netiquette. This is a much better option than shutting down websites. Here is a website that teaches people manners:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html

The whole moral that I have written here is that swearing online is bad and you shouldn’t do it and that being polite online is good and that you should DO THAT! If people misuse technology then that makes life worse for everybody else. I personally think that Digital Identity is a gateway to a good and bad future. Basically I am saying that Digital Identity is both good and bad. Bad because it cause people to make another identity or identities and these other selves hide their true identity so they can act bad. Despite being all this bad stuff I don’t think that the websites should be shut down.