The Little Blue Checkmark

     The sharing economy has brought so much good with a much larger flow of information. But with that flow comes uncertainty. And the developers of apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have had to deal with this uncertainty and occasional lack of trust. They want to make their websites reliable, and needed a way to guarantee that. Enter the "little blue checkmark."
     With the sharing economy comes a lot of unknowns: is this website safe? Can I trust this site with my email? Phone number? Not everyone is comfortable with this. Data shows that 69% of US adults are hesitant to be part of the sharing economy unless they have a reputable source saying it is reliable (IDE Sharing Economy). However, members of today's younger generation are much more open with their information, with 20% being okay sharing their cell phone number in 2013, which was way up from just 2% in 2006 (Henley). The younger generation (12-17 year olds) are much more open with information, and as such, more susceptible to being catfished.
     No, not catfished as in the actual fish, but as in being tricked by someone online who says they are someone they're not. It's so common in today's digital world that MTV made a TV show about it. That's right, there's a reality TV show about masquerading as someone else online. While that might seem humorous, it really is a good idea, as online dating becomes more prevalent.
     So with websites so cognizant of this catfishing, and with many people only willing to participate in social media platforms with the guarantee of authenticity (on Facebook, this could mean having multiple photos, detailed personal information, and friends with the same thing (Henley)), these platforms knew they had to step up big time. So they created the Blue Checkmark, which has now become a universally accepted symbol of "verification." If someone has this check by their profile, you know they're the real deal.
     This honor is usually reserved for people whose profile gets stolen frequently, namely, celebrities. But it isn't unheard of for a "regular person" to get this check either. This article does a great job explaining how various websites determine who gets verified and how and illustrates that many times it's not easy to become verified, which is both good and bad. The elite status of verification ensures that false accounts aren't verified (which would defeat the whole purpose), but also prevents the majority from knowing whether an account is real or false.
     While verification is a step towards better internet safety and reliability, there is still a long way to go. We might never see a world where a profile is guaranteed to be legitimate no matter whose it is, and that might just be part of the risks that comes with taking part in this sharing economy. For now though, at least you can rest assured that you're following the actual accounts of your favorite celebrities and internet personas just by locating the little blue checkmark.