So the second reading that we had to do for Media One this week didn’t really make sense to me and I couldn’t exactly wrap my head around what was being said, so I thought I would discuss another reading that I had done over the weekend which was in relationship to my 4th assessment for Popular Culture in Everyday lives. For this assessment I am looking about misrepresentation online and fake profiling. I first became interested in this when I watched the movie ‘Cat Fish’ which is about a guy called Ned and he builds a relationship firstly with a girl over Facebook and then her whole family, but when he goes to meet them it is nothing at all what they claimed to be. I thought that this would be an interesting topic of internet culture and social media platforms to look at as people underestimate the effects of putting all your information online, and the dangers of creating relationships online. I read an article about this which was about introducing your online and offline identity. What was said is that your offline identity is who you really are, what you cant change mentally and physically about yourself, it is the way you were born and a part of you that you have to accept. Your online identity is one that you can manipulate to the image you want people to see you as, or the image you believe represents yourself more effectively then who you truly are.

In this article there was a diagram which showed three different types of versions of yourself: What I think I am, What I think people think I am and What people think I am. These three versions can be so different and today with the development of social media and internet, the ability to manipulate these images is becoming so easy. This is the issue with misrepresentation online, it in a way can be beneficial to the person conducting it because you are able to show yourself in the way you believe is correct, but it can also lead to more harmful versions where you effect other people by getting involved with them and they fall into believing you are someone you really aren’t. There are so many positives to media platforms, but this is particularly one issue that people need to be conscious of as technology is developing at a rapid pace and people are becoming effected by this.

I think it is an important reminder for people to take a step back, think about who they associate with online and what they share with the public community because there are a lot more fake profilers out there then you would realise. It is so crazy to think someone can be so genuine, but behind the computer they are making it all up. I am really excited to keep researching about this because it is an area I think that gets covered up in the media world because it is secretly growing without the attention that it needs.