Assignment on Personal Identity in the Digital Age

The world today is largely transformed by the mobile electronic devices that we use to stay updates, interact and communicate with others. Fast communication through internet and social media has drastically changed our lives and how we share information with each other. According to a 2012 estimate by Deloitte Digital there are more social media users than car owners in the world. Also, 4.8 billion people own a mobile phone worldwide, as compared to 4.2 billion toothbrush owners (Deloitte Digital, 2012).

Every single one of us has to maintain an online identity for various purposes. The concept of digital governments is also taking the age of information technology one step ahead by migrating all government based public services over the internet. In this era of digital revolution having and maintaining a personal identity is essential.

I can relate to the concepts learn in class in real life through active experimentation. There are lots of people on social networks and whenever we need to find someone we just met or find our colleagues on the internet we execute a social media search. Everyone has an online identity and it has immense importance in today’s digital world.

Managing identity means keeping track of and maintaining identity over different social networks, business website, government institutions, banks, gaming websites etc. For example, a person ight have a more personal Facebook profile reserved for personal posts that he intends to share only with close friends and family, whilst the same person may have a more formal LinkedIn profile to display his academic profile, work experience and skills portfolio.

As finding information becomes easy, managing it becomes more and more difficult. I believe that the dissemination of information all over the internet and the great amount of data that websites collect to maintain online databases, the concept of identity has undergone numerous changes and will continue to evolve for the next few years.

Bibliography

Deloitte Digital. (2012, May 7). Digital Disruption [Infographic]. Retrieved October 27, 2013, from deloittedigital.co: http://www.deloittedigital.com/us/blog/digital-disruption-infographic