Online identities

I've never thought of this, our online identities being different from who we really are. However, I'd say I've realised that many introverts in real life seem to be extroverts online. Probably these real life introverts are lack of self-confidence when they meet people face to face, which is why their real extrovert self is shown online, behind the computer screen.

I do think social networking is a wonderful tool. I mean, for once, I don't have to admit that I actually don't remember someone's birthday, and communication becomes so much easier and cheaper. But at the same time (this was what I learned in class) our online identities become a performance, like how a celebrity manages their image. So in a way, it's not really who we are.

JR.

Coming to think of it, I guess some of my lecturers mentioned something like it before. As in, social network sites is where we sell ourselves, by branding, promoting and labeling ourselves, especially in our About Me's and personal blogs.

Like JR's point, our online identities become a performance, like how a celebrity manages their image.

I guess so, since sometimes I wonder why I post Plurks or Tweets like "Class today's at 2.30pm! Yay!" It's not like I'm a celebrity needing to tell my fans what I'm up to or where I'll be. I do that pretty often. Sometimes I still doubt the move, though I know myself that I'm posting it to express my feelings on a certain happening.

I have a habit of looking back and reading my old entries/posts online. Feels to me it's a way I see how I've changed, mentally (the way I think and my reaction to daily happenings), whether I still react the same to things some time later. It's also a way to track how my style of writing has changed, whether it has improved.

I admit, sometimes I do post entries and updates online hoping to get feedbacks, but most of the time, I find myself posting/updating just to please myself. This, is why I've defended myself for being a person who is still her true self online.

However, here's a point. I might have not realised if I've changed according to how I behave online, instead of my behaviour online changing according to how I've changed. This goes to everyone. In the sense that, without these social networks, ordinary people won't have a public stage to express their inner self. Then we can see why sometimes, the inner self of a person is never seen no matter how close another individual is to him/her; because it is buried deep underneath.

Yet now, with the presence of social network as a stage for people to express their inner self, they simply throw these so-called inner self out, in person.

For instance, person C writes "I'm a person who cries real easily" online. Now C's online image is "a person who cries real easily". Then, in person, C tends to cry too often and easily, maybe unintentionally, as a way to "prove" his words online. Soon, person C who is actually only "a person with sensitive emotions" who doesn't usually express it by crying, becomes a person who cries easily - as a result of his overacting-actions becoming a habit (or new inner self) with time.

Right?

For the time being I'm too occupied to settle down and think if my online image has changed according to how I've changed or vice versa. Anyway, it has, like people say, so many different sides with arguments that are all logical, acceptable and applicable to different individuals.

If you're free and have nothing else to fill time, you may sit down and think of the side that's applicable to yourself.

That's all for the month. My 20th post; finally. :)