Week 3, Task 2, Part a)

Is withholding one’s identity ethically wrong?

In my personal opinion this depends on the extent of your identity you withhold, and in what circumstances. If you are witholding your identity simply to deceive people I think it is ethically and morally wrong. For example, if you're a white, middle-aged male, pretending to be an young, black woman, you are deceiving the person you are talking to, and also may be stereotyping which could lead to offence. In my personal opinion this is ethically wrong. However, if you don't give out your full personal details on a forum or internet chatroom then I don't see that as wrong.

Sherry Turkle argues that we now have several selves, thus it could be considered that the idea of 'self' is the same as the idea of identity. These multiple identities are changable, and 'new media', especially webforums fuel these 'selves' or 'avatars'. This means, in terms of Turkle, we can have more than one identity. Is this really so different to 'real-life?' It could be argued that on a day to day basis we adopt different identities. We act differently in front of friends than we would in front of strangers or people of authority. Is the idea of multiple identities really such a new thing?