Author: Lucija Presečan, OŠ Trnsko, Zagreb
Identity is not just written on a piece of paper, it is not just our personal card. Identity is something that we all have and it is growing inside of us. We are our identity and nobody can take it from us. However there are lot of people presenting themselves differently.
Online activities are no longer separable from our life; our generation is growing in community that uses the internet and social networks for almost everything. Although sometimes the internet can be helpful and a great time waster we need to know that there are lot of people presenting themselves differently and pretending that they are someone else. Social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are great example. People make fake accounts, you never know who might be behind this account, and people creating fake identities and fishing victims are widespread online.
The majority of accounts are created by people who suffer from paedophilia more known as paedophiles; they are people who have sexual thoughts about younger children. Paedophile can be anyone – old or young, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, non-professional or professional, and of any race. They are really susceptible to make fake accounts and present themselves differently and creating fake virtual identity. You can’t see the difference between a fake and real account. People are naive and they believe in everything that happens or that is on the internet, a lot of them are susceptible to make “friends” online and because of fake accounts they are in danger. Only thing that can help is being careful.
Although nobody can take your identity there is one person who can, and that person is you. Can your real identity be replaced by your virtual identity, and do social networks enable us to define ourselves?We need to know that identity is not a paper which can be replaced or rewritten, we build it and we have it and it will never go away.
Picture on Instagram does not define your personality or identity. The person you create on social network is just a person who has few pictures that will go away after sometime but you are not only the person you are the human with traits, personality and identity that can’t go away, you are not worth of likes you are worth of love and respect that cannot be find on Instagram.
And now it seems like I am talking about two different things but I am actually talking about two connected things that are happening on the internet. Fake accounts are fake identities; people who make fake accounts are actually humans who changed their identity because of something. You might not be the paedophile or you might not have the fake account but you are actually presenting yourself differently, you think that it will change something but it will not. One and only identity is one you make growing, the one you have in your social life, the one you make with friends, not one that is online and that will go away.
YOU ARE YOUR IDENTITY AND YOUR IDENTITY IS NOT WORTH LIKES ON INSTAGRAM IT IS WORT LOVE AND RESPECT.INSTAGRAM WILL GO AWAY ONE DAY AND ALL THOSE PICTURES, BUT YOU WILL NOT, THEY WILL REMEMBER YOU, BUT THEY WILL NOT REMEMBER THE PICTURE ON INSTAGRAM.
