i’ve been reading through archives of my old blog from the before time and it got me thinking… how do you draw the line between your online persona and yourself? how do you even define that? really, if you think about it, how is your online persona any different from you as a real life person just straight up lying and telling stories to people who may very well take you at face value?
i feel like so few people present their true selves online. it’s as if when you’re online, it’s a fantasy world where anything goes and you can be whoever you want to be. it’s somehow completely independent from the ‘real world’. and you know, maybe at one point that was true in the early years of the web, but things have changed a lot since then. someone smarter than me could probably make the argument that the online world and the real world have actually switched places in recent years making the stuff that happens online more ‘real’ and the stuff that happens in the real world somehow less real…
if you do something in the real world, unless there has been some kind of recording of it, once it’s done, it’s done. it’s only a memory at that point. but pretty much anything done online leaves traces, it leaves evidence, it leaves proof. it is even more real than real life! you can’t hide from your past online. you can’t deny things you’ve said or done so easily any more. online anonymity is a lie. sure, you can do all kinds of things to try to hide who you are, but ultimately, someone who is clever or resourceful enough will always find a way to circumvent whatever supposed protections you put in place.
which brings me back to my original question, if you have a persona online, how do you separate that from who you really are? what mental gymnastics do you do to rationalize it? or are you just ok with lying?