I was having a chat with my brother a few days back and I suddenly had a moment of clarity and revelation (doesn’t happen as often as I would like it to!) as I was talking about portraying yourself online.
“The Internet’s the Devil.. Facebook is the Devil… Social Networking is the Devil”… ;-) (Along the train of thoughts from Mama Boucher in Waterboy)
I realise a lot of people when asked questions regarding online privacy, thinks of sites where you place your personal information and thoughts as being risky places where all sorts of strangers may get to find out more about yourself.
Well… ironically, these may also be the people who willingly battle day to day details of blogging or sharing ideas online. The general idea is that as long as they talk about things that is happening around them, then they are safe from presenting private information.
Well, for me blogging (or social networking) is a way of “cloning” yourself! – Putting your personality online to reach out to friends or anybody whom you allow to read your blog or profile.
WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT?
Because as much as we like to socialise, we have very little time to do that in our own physical-self. There is only one of us, after-all. And we can only spend so much time with 1 friend at a time.
I treat it like cloning because your profile or status is reaching out to multiple people at one go. It isn’t necessary a bad thing, but you need to be aware of who reads it or how so many different friends react to your posting. (Which coincidentally, makes things even more interesting).
CLONING A FAKE!
Also, having multiple networks isn’t faking it, it’s about how you wish to portray yourself in each network of friends.
It is no different from the fact that you dress up and put on extensive make up when you go for a chic party as compared to going for a Sunday picnic. Or perhaps when you talk to colleagues and when you have casual outings with your friends.
We all talk differently in different situation… and so does our blog or blogs.
It’s about how you portray yourself. Well, I love it cause I enjoy a multi-faceted lifestyle where I can always fallback on one or the other when I need to. It’s all down to how I feel at the time.
And you know what’s the best part when all these “clones” of myself is doing their work online? Well, I get to enjoy the things I truly enjoy in my own physical and real self without worrying about how I should portray myself in real-life!
Hehehe…
Ciao! ;-)
