On the 'Net, I could be Anyone

[bcholmes]

Every once in a while, someone on my friends list will post one of those long questionaires that other people are supposed to answer to indicate how well they know the person. Or they'll fill out a questionnaire talking about how well the people on their friends list knows them (á là "how many of your friends have been to your house?").

It occurs to me every once in a while that most people who know me don't even know what my legal name is. How many people know what "BC" stands for? How many people know know that I have two middle names? I could be anyone ferchrissakes.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

The ambiguity of online life is one of the things that I find really appealing about it. Remember the New Yorker cartoon from several years ago that was captioned "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog"? It's a chance and opportunity to remold oneself into a new soul, and adopt characteristics that feel more suitable, or avoid ones that one doesn't like in oneself.

The most fascinating part is when parts of that online persona start creeping into meatspace, and one finds traces of the habits from online becoming part of the real self, not unlike a visualization exercise that can work over months and years.

By the same token, part of one's personality gets absorbed by the network, and leaves traces behind. Mailing lists and USENET are archived, websites cached, quotes from things linger. Words and thoughts linger like ghosts.