My Digital Identity

infinitehopes · Jul 13, 2009

The moment I have some time on hand, I want to utilize it in connecting with my friends and family to find out how things are at their end. Earlier, that would have meant calling them and talking with them. But with the change in lifestyle, it means checking "what's new" on their profiles!

So I decide to check "what's new" with them. But then immediately get a roadblock - where should I start?

To connect with so many from my family, friends and colleagues, I need to first log on to -
Orkut, then
Facebook, then
MSN, then
Yahoo and so on...

By default I mess up the user names and passwords - and end up resetting at least 1 of them each time ! Upside is, I am getting good at the verification questions though ! As I keep struggling to remember so many user names and passwords for my social identity (apart from my other digital identities for bank, work, mail, office login, ticket booking and others), that I eventually compromise on the whole security aspect by saving all of them in a text file on my desktop!!! All a "digital thief" needs to do is break one password and then wallaah ! (s)he has access to all my identities!

Until a few days/ months ago, I was skeptikal to maintain two active profiles. But I realized that typically my Indian friends in India are active on Orkut, while my non-Indian and Indian friends out of India are active on Facebook. So I narrowed down to these two sites. And then I suddenly get a message - so and so has invited you to Yarri or HiFi and so on.

If someone asks me who am I? My answer is
abc@bank1.com
def@bank2.com
ghi@bank3.com
abc@irctc.com
mno@.... and so on! Which one of these do you want to talk to right now? :rotfl

This message is to all my dear friends, who are reading this - Please note that for lack of enough memory, I am royally ignoring all requests other than Orkut and Facebook. Even within that, I am more active on Orkut and plan to make it as THE identity for me. Hope you will understand my limitations and cooperate. :cheers

Anabika · Jul 14, 2009

It had fun reading this. Keep blogging..

Shanvy · Jul 15, 2009

Infiniteshopes,

I enjoyed your experiences in the digital identity. the fun part is sometimes you get connected to people you have lot touch too. but the -ve is the password and the infinite mails that hit your mailbox.

I have the habit of forgetting, once i keep something safe. so the best thing i do is call up my dh and tell him i am keeping this here..so please remember ..

i used to keep a text file before, but now avoid doing so because of the security reasons.

Deepali_deepali · Jul 15, 2009

It happens with most of us... The more you are net savvy the more is digital confusions.. I can't stop myself signing up to recipes sites, music sites, craft sites and there are just two or three which I end up in accessing..

Good post..Enjoyed reading and replying to it..

infinitehopes · Jul 16, 2009

Hey Anabika, I am really glad you enjoyed it. Is it because you have experienced it at some point of time yourself? Tell me about your experience

infinitehopes · Jul 16, 2009

Ha.. Ha Shanvy! Now I guess the text file is on your DH's desktop !

But you are so right. These sites are really helping connect quickly with friends whom we have lost touch with and who are really not in close proximity to just drop by. I love to connect with them through these means. I think its a great idea to keep everyone updated on what's happening at your end. No doubt. But sometimes I feel, because I get the update, I don't really make enough efforts to connect through phone / in person. To be frank, I feel so connected with everyone that earlier if someone is leaving the job, I would really feel sad that I won't be able to see them. But now, I am like - we will be in touch through emails and phone etc.. So sometimes I feel, the emotions are lost, because we don't really experience the distance and so we neither get too close nor get too far..

Is it making sense?

infinitehopes · Jul 16, 2009

Hey Deepali,
Thank you for the nice comment. As a techie sometimes I feel, why can't they all get onto a forum and agree upone the password strength calculation formula!! If one says that this password is strong, the other say "nyah ! Its weak"... and so I can't really use the same password everywhere!

I think there should be some solution to this problem.. or is there any?

ankitkaran · Jul 18, 2009

Infinitehopes sounds great. Most of us now keep in touch with the usage of internet. No more letter or cards. Even calls to our near and dear ones have been decreased as this option is easier and quicker way to express our feelings.

I think we should keep the details to log in very simple. I do have many sites but most of them have the same username and passwords which makes my remembering them very simple.

Enjoy the blogging

Kiran

Prem.S · Jul 20, 2009

Nice blog infinitehopes. In this techsavvy world everyone now has a minimum of 5 ids in different social network sites, its really great to catch up with our old friends. I lost touch with all my schoolmates but now with Orkut all of us are in touch again. I normally have the same pwd for all the sites to avoid such confusions : )

infinitehopes · Jul 22, 2009

Dear Kiran,
You are so right in saying that other means of communications has almost become outdated. I think its because - this medium of communication is just very convenient and is always at our disposal.

If we plan to chat at a certain time with our friends and family everyday - it will be the same as talking on phone. But instead we say that "If I am online at that time, we will chat" - we hardly say "I will come online to chat with you at this time" and both stick to those times. I think its very easy to just say - oh ! I just couldn't come coz I was busy or net was down or something like that and the other person is also ok - coz it doesn't really cost much - unless (s)he is trying to be on chat "just for you". Isn't it?