THE CHANGE OF IDENTITY IN DIGITAL WORLD

I wrote many texts about the missing people but those who vanished caused by some crime act( being abducted) or committed suicide. Nevertheless, there is the third category that is called missing on purpose, which means that the certain person makes a decision to disappear and start a new life somewhere. In the world of missing people, this seems to be the most optimistic option since the person is on life but far away from the known living environment.

All over the globe, there is a huge amount of missing people. Among them, there are also those who are not harmed or killed but who chose to not being found. I believe that is pretty much extreme situation for families that need to accept to believe that person lives somewhere but there are still not enough background reasons to confirm or deny it. The law enforcement starts always to track the possible crime scene after the one is missing but the way-out is also in the missing on purpose. It is so easy to change the identity nowadays and to get lost, in spite of fact that the whole modern life is under monitoring. The psychologists reported that many people feel stuck in their own micro life and they don’t manage to save themselves from slipping into own problems so they are just gone. The real indicators of being gone due to the own decision could be found in lack of emotional support, the long history of family abuse, the financial crisis, difficulty of being accepted and fitting into society and the drugs or some other addiction situation. According to the crime specialists, there are also many evidences that some people are disappeared because they found the basic comfort in some cult or religious group that is offering shelter though the ideology.

It is interesting that 85% of missing people come back within few days. There are also some that need some more time to get back to themselves and do not want to be found before they show up. In this case, it is good to see how social media networking is making difficult for many people to be simply gone for a while. One person described that she needed some time so she was gone but due to the social media sharing and caring, she has been located and found. Based on their words, she is even more now disturbed and hurt than before the whole show has been started. Why? Sharing and caring about the missing people is important and good but sometimes could be troubling, especially if the sharing of photos is usually without their consent. How anyone would know when the right time is to act and to help detecting and finding missing people ? Where is the border between those who want to be found and those who don’t want to be found? It is very crucial to track the whole circumstances by people who are reported as missing so it could be defined what is behind the vanishing person.

I found some websites and even ideas how to do all legally if you want to disappear. This is a free society and if you are over 18, you can sure go missing but police need to be sure you are and not under some oppression. If you are not responsible for taking care of someone or that someone is depending on you, indeed you can step out from your life and step into the another one or new but make sure your family knows you are ok. The feeling about someone that is missing is usually the bad. The majority of families think that the missing people is, after some time, the killed one, dead. Not knowing that someone is dead or still on life could be a big burden. However, there are moments that investigators need to be careful because sometimes the abused women or men that are gone sent a message that they don’t want to be found by their abusive family members. The good detective need to check all options and to see and feel how is the best to act. Missing person by choice or by someone’s else act.

The social media helps and make it also difficult, depends on what the story is about. Some missing teenagers that ran away from their known life described that sharing of their photos of appeals of family confirmed them that they are loved and needed and that all gonna be ok, so they came home. On the other side, the missing people on purpose might find this trend of sharing/caring via social channels aggressive and against any privacy. The one person faced the serious issue after is back home, being exposed to the whole land as missing person. She even reported that being once declared as missing person turned her into the potential victim but also into the mental unstable person after, when it was about career or private relationships. The law enforcement as well as the family members need to cooperate tightly to not cross over the private borders of the targeted person and also to not ignore the safety measures. The job is not easy, actually it is big challenge to recognise the type of missing person and being sure about it.

In the world that is pulsing with digitalisation and monitoring from all sides, it seems almost impossible to delete the traces and footprints, to simply vanish. However, it happens all the times and I am shocked how many people are daily reported as missing. Nobody is telling us if they are missing on purpose or missing because of someone else. It is devastating in any case to discuss about missing people because whatever the reason is, it is difficult. If someone is missing because of abduction, suicide or private problems, it is the scream of society that is constant under pressure. The deviant behaviour that is expressed in occurring of social predators is one side of the story. The another side of the story are vulnerable categories of individuals that are dealing with stress, mental issues and not knowing how to get out of that magic dark circle. The both options are not good and they give to the society we live in the long list of tasks to do and to improve the conditions of life.

Personally, I am concerned about the new generations of children and teenagers that live in the shadow of social media and networking but they still don’t have trust in their own families. It is the matter of the time when their fragile personalities don’t jump into the new trends of vanishing or simply being abused as the victim of some social monster. We need to work better to understand our children and to make them ground comfort and support level. Everything else that would come eventually after the missing person is reported could be most likely fatal or devastating. Not everyone is missing on purpose and even if it is, we need to help them clarify their life and not simply go away from it.