What is in an Identity?
So after the recent post and comments I was thinking more about online personalities. I have been online for 14 years and have undergone some identity changes but I have noticed one thing…people claim that they pretend to be someone when they are online but more often they reveal their true behavior.
I take an example from my experience with Guild Wars. I ran several guilds and dealt with countless people and found that people would act as though they were entitled to things just because they graced you with their presence. I am not saying that all players are like that but there are a lot. I also found that people would act in ways that they knew were not appropriate in real life. I know there have been studies that show it but I still find it interesting how people act as though no social norms exist when they interact on the Internet. Moreover I find it more interesting how at times people will change their behavior when they find out about the real person behind the online proxy. One such case comes to mind. When I was running my first guild I had a running relationship with two gamers that got along well. They tended to agree on most everything until one day the older of the two (he was a professional at a college) discovered that the other person was a 16 year old child. After making this discovery the two wound never agree on anything.
I guess these events really have me pondering why we as people and as logical beings can have one perception but given later detail can immediately revers such perceptions. I view my interactions online as more a window into what a given person is willing to share with the world under the guise of anonymity. This is more why I keep my “Personalities” separate. I have the way I act on the Internet which in my case is much the same as I act in real life, but I have learned that at times braking the anonymity can hurt the relationships that you have built with others online.
When running about online much like in real life I find it best to hold on to some things and remember that behind those screen names and avatars there are real people. On that same note a degree of separation is always needed. I myself find the need to keep a balance between my life and my digital life. In my digital life I never speak of my job this is because I know from other peoples experience’s that doing so in a negative way can hurt your chances with some employers. That is why I like to stay anonymous but visible. It is also why I have some tension over whether to blog and what to blog about.
Having been involved in technology and IT I know how easy it can be to discover the identity of a person on the Internet. I also know that nearly everything we do is tracked somewhere. This knowledge always make me cautious about what I do. At the same time I like the freedom the false anonymity provides. I can tell you I am not a quiet person in real life but I am shy and being online and knowing that all someone has to judge me on is what I type makes me able to be more outgoing than I would be in real life.
So, where am I going with this whole crazy rant? I really don’t know I just feel that it is something to be said and I hope it will spark some discussion or insight to whoever decides to read it. If you look closely at this and read what I never wrote you may also glimpse the person that is controlling the puppet that is Seroph. The real me is here if you just know where to look.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I see you! Sorta…
I think that many of use that have blogged and continue to do so have asked the questions you seem to be asking and struggled with the same issue. When I first encountered online relationships it was in the very early part of the internet on BBS’s. These networks were smaller and not totally linked but they garnered the same sort of issues.
As for personalities, I too find myself living something of a different personality on line. The personality is still me and I don’t pretend it isn’t but there are aspects that are either amplified or omitted depending upon the context of where I am posting or commenting. For instance, here and on my blog I would probably offer more in the way of discussion than I would on the Playstation underground forums. I’ve also noticed that MMORPG’s have a different feel and type of context than online blogs and that some people treat such things as more of a game than others… Hence, you have the asshats that trouble people in MMORPG but would never be so blatantly rude in real life to the person in front of them.
In my own blog I’ve made the decision not to limit my readers by my own fears of their reactions but, more often than not, I try my best to hide the identities of those I’m speaking of or the places I mention. Sure, I’ve decided to out myself online, so to speak but that doesn’t give me the right to place the same assumptions on others…
However, I do dread having my mother find the blog… so, I am not completely unaware of the anxiety that blogging can cause LOL
May 15th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I agree with you. I do want to clarify that for me Seroph is the identity I choose to have online much as a person will choose to have an identity at work that differs from that of their personal life. As for the apprehension on content I wrote and journal for years and only after years of hiding it did I feel like I could share my works with any other person. I guess that is where I have to admit to being cautions to a fault when it comes to sharing my thoughts and beliefs.