I think it is unethical to misrepresent oneself anywhere,
just for selfish or wrong motive. People, who do that, always have bad
intention toward others in expense to their satisfaction. I strongly agree with
the researcher, saying, there is greater deceit on online communities than face
to face. A lot of people on online relationship have identity issue. They don’t
really believe in them self in having a committed relationship with people face
to face, due to the fact that, they may have experience some bad relationship,
or hurt from other. Most of the reasons could include, inferiority complex,
that is, they easily feel intimidated by others success or achievement, shyness,
lack of self-motivation, depression, which leads to falsely identifying oneself
to be who they really aren’t. A typical incident had happened to one of my
friend, whom after recovering from a bad experience in her relationship to a guy
she dated for 5years, decided to do online dating. She meets this guy on line,
who supposedly claimed to be 35 years in age, and kept a picture to portray his
youthfulness. My friend decided to hold a date with him, and later found out on
the date, he was in his late 50ths, very funny.
Sorry to hear that about your friend, but I definitely agree with you that it is unethical for us to portray different identities to others. I had an experience where i met a few guys online and they tried to act mature and older aged because younger game players are not as respected. They are seen as immature and lack common sense. I knew right away that they weren't who they were but it's sad to see people act this way because they are scared to show who they really are. Sometimes it isn't avoidable because we want equal opportunities as others but that still doesn't make it right.
ReplyDelete