In this post, I’m going to explore how our online persona differs from our persona in real life. I will discuss what factors cause us to act differently when online and whether or not this difference in persona may be good or bad for us in the greater scheme of things.
When conversing in real life with someone, you might only get the one chance to talk to them or construct a sentence but because it is something only spoken at that time it tends to be more straightforward and direct(1), also it might not be remembered down the line and others generally can’t hold what you’ve said in the past against you because they won’t know what it is you’ve said. When we look at our online persona’s it is a lot more difficult to get rid of the digital traces we have each left. It is because of the longevity of what we post online that causes us to think more about what it is that we reveal about ourselves as it can have a must more lasting impact.
The adverse effects of what we say online can range from small to much larger consequences. An example of this is when Connie Levitsky, a university student, took up a part-time job at a clothing brand specializing in plus size clothing. After starting the job Levitsky posted on facebook to say “Conquering the world, one well-dressed fat lady at a time.” and not long after she was fired from the retailer. (2)
I personally have had a bit of an awakening around what I post online, how visible it is and what I want people to actually be able to see about me. Having worked on a project around data protection I decided to seek out as many old social networks that I don’t use anymore and completely delete everything there was about me on those sites. While looking through some old tweets from when I was 15 was fun it also made me realise a lot of the stuff I was reading I wouldn’t associate with who I am today and would hate for anyone to have the impression that I am the same person I was back then.
The main thing I’ve taken from researching what an online persona is and can be, is that while you can have greater control over how people perceive you online you also can’t deny how little you might know about others so while you should remain hesitant about people you meet online you should also be open to the fact that they might be showing you a truer version of themselves than they feel they can in real life.
References
(1) https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/sep/24/online-offline-personality-digital-identity
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