The trace of digital identity

If before we used our biological features as our identity forms or presence marks (e.g. finger prints, footprints, etc.), nowadays, this world of bits records every single move of ours with digital footprints. Most of us find the Internet useful and we are still excited to explore this new toy. However, a lot of Internet users have no idea how much personal information they have made accessible on the Internet.

I watched We Live in Public, a documentary about Josh Harris - an Internet Pioneer, and Josh reminded me of Guy, a character in Transmission of Hari Kunzru (Well, this book has my vote for the most interesting reading in the course besides the Ghost Map haha). Both of them are bright people who have great ideas and both of them, in the end, run away from the glossy world to hide in a rural area, yet their digital identities still haunt them.

For Josh Harris, the idea of capturing his daily live and have it live on the Internet was bizarre to me. People crave for attention every single minute and they would do anything to have that fifteen-minute fame. The experiment turned Josh from a creative artist to a destructive individual. Everything he put on the Internet transformed into bit and stayed there forever. For Guy, a creative marketer, his idea is to combine physical database and biometrics as identification to prevent illegal immigrants. Ironically, his idea betrayed him with Leela, the sweet virus, and made him get identified as an illegal immigrant and get deported. Later, when Guy tries to run away from everything and hide in a place no one knows, it is still easy to track him down before of those bits on the magnetic stripe on his credit cards, the money in his bank, the fame that he has, etc. Everything defines his digital identity.

I feel kind of ironic how I am studying about media and sometimes I find it hard to control the information I share on the Internet. To save time and save money, I am willing to share my personal information (talking about those loyalty cards or toll tag) and those information bits will be stored forever, yet I have no idea about who has control over them. Sometimes, I tell myself that I'd take a break from the digital world when I'm done with school (since all my school work is online based), but I catch myself constantly checking my email and other networking accounts wondering what people would react if I disappear virtually (especially when I am half an earth away from home). And then, I realize that I am just another sheep who wants attention just like Josh Harris and leave my digital footsteps everywhere in this digital world just like Guy. And sometimes, I just want to be like Arjun, to really disappear without any trace tied to identity (Well, it's a metaphor. I don't want to physically disappear haha).