Identity Perception in the Virtual World - Essay Example

Identity Perception in the Virtual World Rough Draft This essay deals with defining the nuances of identity perception in the virtual world. To begin with, this essay will describe what identity is. Further, it will develop the human relation setting within which the analysis will be conducted and descriptions put forth. This human relation setting is important from the point of view of the individual who looks at cyber space with a certain level of optimism. This model of optimism will be used within the framework of thinking aloud and evaluation methods that dictate the decision aids that a person makes use of when creating an identity through various choices and means. These choices can include the various activities that one indulges in on the Internet. These have been roughly categorized as follows: Joining communities and interacting with people, making friends; Shopping online; Creating business networking and work place communities. The above mentioned points are a few of the choices that face people when creating their own identity on the Internet or within cyber space. This is where the use of decision aids comes in as far as the following points are concerned: Information sharing; Means of security; Use of specific language; Visiting communities that are either popular or new one; Creating new communities. These are some of the features that describe the various ways in which an individual decides to express himself or herself and put across an identity or a face to an entity in the cyber world. In this essay, there will be a focus on describing exact scenarios so as to put across the realities of developing an identity within the human relation setting in cyber space. This identity will then be scrutinized on the above mentioned parameters which will be described in keeping with the evaluation and thinking aloud models that a person makes use of when using a decision aid in order to define himself or herself. This essay will put forward various arguable points that in turn will render authenticity to the identity. This is merely a rough draft with a vague framework of ideas that have helped in developing a point of view. This point of view will be further classified within the essay on the basis of the above mentioned models so as to ensure that there is clear demarcation of the various kinds of perceptions that revolve around this kind of an identity. This will also be covered with the use of parameters for description such as trials, tribulations and various other such facets of being an entity in the virtual realm. Identity Perception in the Virtual World With an increase in the phenomenon known as globalization and the wide use of technology as a complementary feature, human society has changed and the needs have increased manifold. Changes in the political, economical and cultural arena have challenged and effected alterations within various professions. The autonomy of professions has been under challenge because the market has tried to decrease it so to reduce their power and status. Also, trust has been replaced by target setting accountability as client-professional interactions have been limited in order for services and companies' profits to be increased. In this regard, the identity of a person has come to be influenced by various factors that involve the technical aspects within which people and organizations operate. This essay will describe a setting within which the identity issues of an individual will be perceived and put forth. Parameter for Study: Human Relation Setting In the human relation setting, it is imperative for the assessor to be at his or her most attentive best. Since this may not always be possible, there is a room for faulty perception especially in an arena like the cyber space where there is little real time interaction. Also, in case a personal bias of some sort creeps in towards a problem area encountered by the entity, there is scope for misguided judgments regarding identity perception to take place. This also makes the participant more vulnerable to faulty advice and counseling as he or she comes in with an open mind to accept the norms of operating in the virtual setting as far as academics, shopping, entertainment, work and friendships are concerned. The keyword in this essay for the human relations setting within which the scenarios will be described, is "networking". Further, in settings like workplaces and places of education, students and employees alike are exposed to the assessors and participants in terms of their weaknesses and vulnerabilities which may sometimes hamper their chances of growth in their field. In this regard, it is important to balance strengths and weaknesses instead of studying either of them for the sake of a balanced judgment. Studying both sides of the coin will also help the assessor decide which model he or she might want to apply to the behavior of the individual in order to correct the deviations. Examples of these models may be a deficit model to work around weaknesses and make do with whatever little they are getting, or a solution based model which will help correct the weakness instead of learning to live with it. Such cases demand that the assessor follow the rule of thumb of studying the individual's motivational factors and conflict areas so as to find the model that will be most congenial for the individual. In this case, an existential critique will serve the purpose of finding the factors that affect the individual in the negative as well as the positive sense. Also, it will expose the individual's basic belief system in terms of existential realities concerning wider issues like those pertaining to feminism and multicultural critique. This gives the assessor a wider perspective and helps reach the root of the problem within the cyber space setting. Description of Scenario We are now entering a scene where there is a creation of what scholars terms as artificial environment. This realm operates on the level of imagination and motivations working in the virtual world. This is where the following factors take place: Academics; Shopping; Networking; Work. To begin with, let us consider academics. Human relations are that sphere of interaction that takes place in context of building relations and carrying out the necessary formalities to maintain the same. In this regard, it is imperative to carry out assessment of problem areas on a regular basis so as to find any deviations in the path of achieving the mutually beneficial goals of such relations. Assessment procedures on the other hand, also have a quality of risk which can put the assessing party at a disadvantage when it comes to studying the person before him or her. Assessment procedures may take place in context of counselling, personality and other areas like education related and other disorders. The PR level of such institutions works at a different level as far as luring students and motivating them to join colleges is concerned. With the rising number of online degrees and colleges, it is important for educational institutions to provide a sense of identity to the prospective students first. This is done through the following aspects that operate within the PR setting of online activities for such institutions: The challenge of creating perfect balance between theory and practice in the courses, etc on offer; The challenge of promoting the idea of worthwhile learning within and outside this virtual classroom so as to ensure that the human relation setting is kept intact within the course offerings; The challenge of garnering complete general and cognitive competence through the above two factors. This is what makes identities built within the virtual academic setting all the more challenging as there is peer pressure from the real as well as the virtual world given the sheer number of choices as now, the operations and activities are taking place on a global scale. Shopping and entertainment have become serious business on the Internet. In the virtual realm, shopping is a matter of making use of various decision aids that help a consumer in deciding what he or she wants to buy. In this regard, the choice of viewing advertisements as well as details of discounts, comparison matrices and other such factors is what motivates the customer to remain in the virtual setting where he or she does not have to face real time sales people or the pressure of buying something. This has been furthered by the following theories based on motivation: Thinking aloud methods: The thinking aloud evaluation is based on the theoretical approach of finding out what a group of users thought and said as they worked according to a certain user interface depending on the design and design process of the interface. This was then applied to the online shopping aids for a variety of businesses in terms of the positioning of the vital user information on the screen so as to study the appropriateness of the placement and the decision aids in general. In this regard, the thinking aloud model is a direct statement of what is required and what is not. (Cho et al, 2000) Evaluation methods: these methods are based on the evaluation of various user interface models through a focus on the software and product life cycle. In this regard, the evaluation models are concerned with the use of various statistical tools that study the approaches of the model of the usability process. The evaluation method focuses on the analysis of the primary data that will be gathered through questionnaires and surveys for studying the effects of decision aids. (Nemetz, 2002) The major motivating factors that were found in the thinking aloud method will be tested for validity and reliability in the evaluation method through a focus on finding the causes for the existing motivational factors. Coming down from E Commerce, one will find that the social sphere is merged with the professional on the basic of social networking through blogs and online communities. In this regard, the work ethic and work culture has also become centered around more informal use of language as well as expressions. The global arena has triggered the identities to be built around communities as well as the insight of the bloggers in real time and virtual relations. Here, the perception is fuelled and motivated purely by needs in terms of social and professional issues. (Karge, 1999) Letter: Trails and Tribulations Writing this essay was one of the most satisfying things as far as merging creative and theoretical work is concerned. In writing this essay, I was faced with a variety of trails and tribulations. The foremost among these was to choose and adhere to the human relation setting so as to ensure that the reader of this essay will perfectly understand the context and link between theories and real practices in the virtual world. I had to visit a number of blogs so as to realize that topics and issues shift on a day to day basis and have more connection with reality than any conversation one might have in a real time social setting. This put forward the problem of defining the nuances. Therefore, I made use of theories like the thinking aloud model as well as the evaluation method that helped in understanding the following two points: Perception; Motivation. These are the two most important points as far as understanding the virtual setting and people's choices as far as identity creation and perception is concerned. Through a focus on decision aids and various other such technicalities, I was able to better understand the choice of smaller details like the use of particular icons, names, expressions and many other such things. Another important problem I encountered was placing these artificial perceptions within the human relations settings. References 1. Karge, Martha (1999). The Digital Self in Cyber Space. University of Wisconsin. URL: http://www.uwm.edu/Course/com813/karge2.htm (Accessed during: July, 2008). 2. Cho, B; Kim, D J; Raghav, Rao H (2000) Effects of Consumer Lifestyles on purchasing behavior on the Internet: A conceptual framework and empirical validation. The Digital ACM. Pp 688 - 695 3. Nemetz, F (2002). The Missing Link: Multimedia and E-Commerce; Conference on human factors in computing. ACM Digital Library. Pp 65 - 66 Read More