What is a digital identity?

Digital identity is an identity that develops through social interactions by the use of online platforms and communication tools (Jawed et al., 2019). It is the self-concept of an individual’s emotions, attributes, beliefs, experiences, morals, and other aspects expressed in the digital world. When people create a social media account or establish a digital certificate, they are creating a digital identity. By maintaining your account, for example updating personal profile, posting an article, sharing a story, or a photo, you enrich your digital identity. Digital identity can usually be divided into professional identity and private identity, with different purposes but many similarities in the maintenance approaches.

How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

Because the establishment goals of personal and professional digital identities are different, their impact on social media usage naturally also varies. On the one hand, personal digital identity usually focuses on expressing personal emotions, such as commenting on a movie or a short video, liking a photo of a puppy, and simply speaking about today’s mood, etc; Or focuses on sharing one’s own life experiences, such as posting a blog about one’s experience in some event, respond to others’ questions based on one’s experience, etc; Or focuses on communicating with friends, family members, or like-minded individuals who have never met before, such as discussing opinions on a certain forum, posting a barrage on a video, agreeing on things through private messages or emails, and so on. In private online communication, people are usually relaxed and stress free, and the opinions of others on what we post are often less important than the fact that we post. Most of the content of private online communication may not have much information and may not be helpful to oneself or others, but the emotional value of this process is significant, and people gain benefits beyond economic benefits during this process. On the other hand, professional identity is closely related to an individual’s career. We establish our professional reputation through online communication, showcase our professional knowledge, participate in professional meetings and discussions, collaborate with colleagues on a project, and so on. In the online professional communication process, we attach great importance to the opinions of others, emphasizing professionalism, the quality and accuracy of the content what we intend to post.

How do digital identities converge in networked publics – what are the impacts and/or benefits?

The convergence of digital identities is usually due to the interconnected nature of online platforms and the blurring of the boundary between personal and professional fields. Firstly, with the increase of social media apps, more and more people are maintaining an active online status on multiple platforms. For example, a person may have multiple accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, etc. These accounts may be related to each other, and the same post may appear on multiple platforms at the same day. Due to the association between personal social media platforms and professional platforms, the boundary between personal and professional fields can easily become blurred. Secondly, people are increasingly valuing the authenticity of online communication, encouraging people to showcase their true experiences and perspectives in a professional environment, which also allows for the integration of personal and professional identities. Finally, the online public provides individuals with a large number of communication opportunities, allowing them to establish a network of relationships that spans both personal and professional domains through the internet. In this process, personal and professional identities also converge. People discussing a certain job on professional platforms are prone to running to other personal platforms to continue discussing content related to work for various reasons, such as wanting to share this experience.

The convergence of digital identities has several benefits. It allows individuals to more freely showcase their diverse skills, thereby gaining more job opportunities or reputation. For example, we often find that our abilities demonstrated in other fields have a significant impact on a particular job in our current field. It makes communication more convenient for people. We often use private networks to achieve professional goals or establish personal relationships in a certain professional environment. The convergence of identities facilitates cooperation and communication with others, facilitates us to discover more like-minded friends, and obtains more support and encouragement.

References

Jawed, S., Mahboob, U., & Yasmeen, R. (2019). Digital professional identity: dear Internet! who am I?. Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice, 32(1).