What About That Internet Personae?
About a month ago, Russ published a post about his internet persona. If you're not familiar I encourage you to read it. The gist is an awareness of one's presence online as it pertains to romance, professional life and general self-interest. How do we balance who we really are, and how we are represented online to an expanding audience? Our ability to censor ourselves slips from our grasp everyday we keep our Myspace and Facebook profiles alive. Photos of us are tagged and shared without our discretion. Our interests, educational background, age, place of residence and network of friends are all public domain.
After Russ' insightful post, I couldn't help but take this more seriously. Perhaps because Russ, more than anyone, has sacrificed his public image for laughs. Before online communities, almost nothing was off limits. Public nudity, outrageous outfits and social self-sabotage were all fair game. Nude/incriminating photos were freely shared amongst friends, and why shouldn't they be?
Well ladies and gentlemen, the pendulum has shifted. We can no longer rely on the honor system to conceal our more vulnerable moments, and with the internet as our audience, future employers, girlfriends/boyfriends and grandparents are in the front row.
For instance, Facebook just alerted me that my name was tagged on a photo Felipe took:
This photo takes on a new dimension when my little cousins search for cousin Andrew, and find me with a pissing clown. My cover is blown when the pretty jewish girl who raises money for Africa I was trying to impress finds out I'm just a jokester. But what's the alternative? De-tag and lose face? Or worse, censor my real life experiences to save myself the trouble of damage control after the fact? Oh brother.
Well Russ, you've planted the seed of self-consciousness. I used to never care about my internet personae, do I now? I'd like to think not, but ever since your post it's been in the back of my mind. Today when I saw this photo of myself, ironically with the two of us in it, I couldn't help but feel a bit concerned. Now, Liz has the photo saved to her desktop, and god knows who else is rolling around laughing at our expense.
Even Sam, a famous self-effacer, drunkenly mumbled "Russ...don't make a movie" as you filmed him trying to take his pants off with his shoes on in his kitchen. Would Sam have ever said that before he thought it might come back to haunt him on the internet?
So many uncertainties, so little online forgiveness. I guess the real question is, how far a reach does our Facebook/Myspace account have in our day to day life? The fear of course, is finding out.
After Russ' insightful post, I couldn't help but take this more seriously. Perhaps because Russ, more than anyone, has sacrificed his public image for laughs. Before online communities, almost nothing was off limits. Public nudity, outrageous outfits and social self-sabotage were all fair game. Nude/incriminating photos were freely shared amongst friends, and why shouldn't they be?
Well ladies and gentlemen, the pendulum has shifted. We can no longer rely on the honor system to conceal our more vulnerable moments, and with the internet as our audience, future employers, girlfriends/boyfriends and grandparents are in the front row.
For instance, Facebook just alerted me that my name was tagged on a photo Felipe took:
This photo takes on a new dimension when my little cousins search for cousin Andrew, and find me with a pissing clown. My cover is blown when the pretty jewish girl who raises money for Africa I was trying to impress finds out I'm just a jokester. But what's the alternative? De-tag and lose face? Or worse, censor my real life experiences to save myself the trouble of damage control after the fact? Oh brother.
Well Russ, you've planted the seed of self-consciousness. I used to never care about my internet personae, do I now? I'd like to think not, but ever since your post it's been in the back of my mind. Today when I saw this photo of myself, ironically with the two of us in it, I couldn't help but feel a bit concerned. Now, Liz has the photo saved to her desktop, and god knows who else is rolling around laughing at our expense.
Even Sam, a famous self-effacer, drunkenly mumbled "Russ...don't make a movie" as you filmed him trying to take his pants off with his shoes on in his kitchen. Would Sam have ever said that before he thought it might come back to haunt him on the internet?
So many uncertainties, so little online forgiveness. I guess the real question is, how far a reach does our Facebook/Myspace account have in our day to day life? The fear of course, is finding out.
Labels: Felipe Lima, Internet Personae, Russ Finkelstein, Sad Clown, Sam Sundos
posted by andrew at
4:57 PM
4 Comments:
Can I clarify and say that not only do I have the photo saved, but I made it my desktop wallpaper.
I was just about to chime in on how this photo has become my wallpaper... Elizabeth beat me to it. Well done.
well, in response to drew's new found internet identity crisis, I have spent some time reflecting on the issue and have come up with a new outlook. It is a perspective that has been influenced by living in South America all these years where your work/social/family/romantic life all seems to blur into one mess.
I think growing up in the USA where we hold this sort of sanctity for privacy and personal space has lead our generation to actually have multiple personaes; which now we struggle to manage on the internet.
For example, the parents of some poor kid go out of town for the weekend and what do we do? We get as much alcohol as we can buy with our lunch money and face ID's and we fuck that kid's house up. But thats not how we would behave if the parents were there. The idea of a party where the parents are there was almost always a deal breaker because we wanted to get sloppy drunk and finger bang; and there are very few parents who would allow that (and those who did allow that were outcasted by the other parents, and most likely have problems).
So we behave one way with our friends, another way with girls, another way with our families etc. In south america, there is very little concept of personal space and privacy. Most people live with their families until they get married, and as such they have parties in their homes with their families present. Heres an example: I found myself recently talking with a girl from work, and she invited me to a party at her house. I went and was received by her mother who handed me a cocktail and I sat and drank it at the kitchen table with the girl's grandfather who asked me if I was interested in his granddaughter. I found myself in a work/social/potentially romantic situation and I was forced to behave accordingly. But it wasn't the sort of awkward "you are this girl I work with's grandpa" situation. It was more the grandpa having a drink and telling me stuff like "shes a good dancer, you should take her to a discotech" etc. And I liked that.
There is a very private side to most south american cultures though when it comes to things like cheating on your wife. There are motels with private entrances for example so you drive in, hide your car in a garage and no one ever sees you or your fuck partner. I think this is the internet equivalent to porn, and therefore doesn't really play into the facebook/myspace dilema that me and drew both struggle with.
But aside from that, most people behave in a way that is suitable for all audiences, work, family, romance etc. I tend to think this is a good policy, and thats not to say that we should curb our eccentric selves. Shouldn't my family love and understand me, considering I am a reasonable and responsible person? I think so. Obviously there are times when the negative effects of an incriminating photo on the web outweigh the humor and or artistic value. But really, if I am going to have an honest and open relationship with my friends, family and potential girlfriends, then I should be all about posting that photo of me doing a naked handstand or the one of me pissing with clown make-up on because they are awesome pictures. But I should be proud of them in all contexts. Sure everything has its time and place, maybe those really out there pictures (like the close up of matt lampkin pinching my Urethra) should be kept private, but I don't think that there is anything inherently wrong with showing your true self, even if you tend to get a bit wild from time to time.
amen russ, well stated.
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