Identity… The “real” you versus the “online” you.
This week, in our online course, we have been asked to consider the differences between the “real” version of ourselves, with the “online” version of myself. Through reflection, I have worked to map out where, when, and why I typically become the online version of myself. Unfortunately, I have also identified that with the convenience of my Smartphone, I also often participate online during circumstances or environments where I used to only be Internet free. For example, reading a book is now often interrupted by looking at websites, and a trip in the woods camping is now augmented with the ability to start connected to the Internet. While I see positive and negative aspects for all of this personally, I want to move away from examining where and why I use the Internet, and dissect more how the two versions of my are similar and different.
When considering the persona of “online” Mark Hart with “real” Mark Hart, it is perhaps easiest to examine what is tangible and quantifiable. The real Mark Hart lives a quiet life, surrounded primarily with work, a wife and my three kids. Sprinkled in would be various acquaintances at work, who I have shallow conversations with throughout the day. Online Mark Hart, however, is much more concerned with sensing the amount of “friends” I have, how many likes I get on a post, and who is following me on Twitter. Everything online is very quantifiable, and it makes me think often how other people have “x” more friends of followers than I have. Are these people more interesting than I am how “close” are they really to their “friends” and what steps did they take to procure such a following? Real Mark is not very concerned about how many people come in and out of my life; I obviously have my family which keeps me very busy as well as a small group of friends I keep in touch with more intimately than just saying hi to on Facebook. With this group of friends in my life, I really never think about adding friends or seeing someone’s affirmation to things I say in my real life.
In dissecting my persona, online and in real-life, I need to consider what I talk about, how I say it, and frequency of topics as well. In my real-life I am nearing the end of my doctoral program in educational technology. With that said, however, it is not really something I discuss in my real life as I do not talk about ed tech often with my wife, kids, or friends. I do have a full-time job in educational technology, but most of my work is solitary and I am considered the expert in the field as I work with professors who are experts in their content fields. My online persona, conversely, centers a lot on educational technology, especially on Twitter. While both are considered social media, in my usage I differentiate Facebook as a tool I use with friends, while Twitter is an area I interact with strangers who share similar interests, namely educational technology.
A final look at how I am different online, and in real life, relates to how I act and how I say what I am trying to express. Anyone who knows the “real” me, knows me to be very quiet, not ask many questions and have a very dry sarcastic sense of humor. Online, I am very different, as the mere participation online often requires the need for me to initiate conversation, something I never do in person. Furthermore, sarcasm is a tool which I have learned needs to be refined in an online environment. In real life, I find people can often sense my sarcasm within one or two comments as I have a full arsenal of expression, body movements, etc. to highlight that I am joking. Online, there are ways to also show you are joking, but often it relies on being a bit more obvious, like after a comment saying something like (just kidding). Embedding posts with pictures and videos, however, is another way to show my sense of humor as I often enjoy posting satire on topics like politics and everyday life. In the end, I hope people would see some of the same “me” online, as they would in real-life. While I need to be more extroverted online, I am not someone who has made 10,000 Tweets in my life. I think my sense of humor comes through, as well as my areas of interest.
To further examine the ways, my real-life persona could be different than my one online, I examined a few blog posts on the issue, including the article “Online persona rarely match real-life behavior, observers say” ( http://phys.org/news193046619.html ). In this article, they highlighted how people are more prone to be extreme with their postings and comments online than they would be in real-life. Observing some comments I often see in the “Comments” section at the end of news articles online, I can certainly agree with this way of thought, though I am not sure that would apply to myself. Recently I have noticed that many news organizations are requiring people to not make anonymous posts in the comments, but have to sign-in through their Facebook accounts. With that in mind and not that I have ever made an anonymous outrageous post prior, I do not think I would say something online that I would not say myself to people in person. The article also confirms some of my own findings that people who are very talkative or comment a lot online are not necessarily like that in real-life. Another factor discussed in the article “The Online Disinhibition Effect” (http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html ) discussed how people are prone to have interests online that they do not have in real-life. For example, some people who are very calm and passive in real-life enjoy watching fighting videos and violent content online. Personally, I again can see the truth in these observations, though I would say that most of my online tastes: sports, movies, comedy, and topics I enjoy watching and discussing in real-life.
No comments:
Post a Comment