The topic of digital identity has gained academic attention with the increasing popularity of user created Internet content (referred to as Web 2.0) on social media networks. A seismic technological and cultural shift occurred with the rise of social media, a shift from corporal existence in the real world to a virtual existence online. These emerging forms of communication culture have placed media theorists in new frontiers of interdisciplinary research, to understand and explain the phenomena and increased social and cultural importance placed on the existence of digital identities .
In our technologically determinist culture we increasingly depend on digital media for validating offline information, which places us in a paradigmatic shift where the offline (real) loses importance while the online (virtual) gains meaning. It can be argued that virtual existence via digital identity has become exponentially popular because of a culture that associates technology with progress, while largely ignoring the social ramifications and the reality distorting effects of our new media ecology.
This study merges both theoretical resources on the discussion of digital identity in such fields as media ecology, virtual ethnography, narrative identity theory, social psychology and the philosophy of communication with qualitative primary research on how artists and other creative professionals utilize social media to negotiate a professional and social reputation.
