friends don’t let friends make fools of themselves online
I’ve been thinking a bit lately about online aliases, and the move back towards reintegrating real and virtual identities. Sites like Facebook strongly encourage the use of your actual (legal) name, and I’ve been noticing the increased use of real names on sites that do allow alias creation (such as Twitter and blogs).
This may just be a reflection of my shifting position in my online networks, as I move more deeply into online interactions with people whose online activity is an extension of their offline profession – to whit, this tumblr being listed under my real name, with links to my physical affiliations. Whilst I hate the term, ‘branding’ your identity has become a current topic of discussion on my twitter stream, and one that may have relevance here (or may reflect the disproportionate number of social marketers on my twitlist!)
But I think that’s not the whole story. With the new generation of users coming online to experience the social web for themselves, there isn’t the same conceptualization of identity construction online – to stick with Facebook as an example, there is a structural orientation which privileges the existing networks of the users’ physical space over the wholly novel virtual networks which disregard space in the main as an irrelevant function.
So your online activities now might be more tightly related to your offline identity than they were even a few short years ago. What does that mean?
For a start, we have a shift in identity politics of the users – an alias is an escape, the chance to be someone else, to slip the shackles of your existent identity to try something new or to get away from preconceptions about who you are or what you want. It is a construction that allows for experimentation and elaboration. Hmm, sounds a bit like being a teenager, but it is also a space of play with (at least a perceived) reduction of risk if something goes bad. It is easier to slip out of an avatar than your own skin if you fuck up and want out.
This isn’t to say that people don’t invest in their online aliases – they do. This can be seen in the way people protect their online aliases, claim ownership of them, and resist identity invasion. It can also be seen in the social taboos about ‘outing’ the person behind the alias.
But what happens when you remove the protective layer of the alias? I have seen arguments that say it is more honest, more ‘real,’ if the user engages online under their own name and face. And, depending on the social context, this might be the case. A Facebook user that uses their FB network to organize party invites and study dates with their cohort in their physical environment would not have the need to play or experiment online like the aliases do – this is an extension of an old social network, not a forging of a new one.
But – and this is the crux of my pondering – the virtual is bigger than your local social network. You may go online as yourself to hang out with your local friends, but they’re not the only ones who can see you. A future boss, an internet stalker, or someone from Brazil who loves that indie band you do can all network with you too. And if the attention is unwanted, there is no skin to shed, no safe core identity which can serve as a retreat.
As the internet becomes more integrated into our daily lives (and accessed from our pockets), and as the amount of information about ourselves accumulates, it will be interesting to see what coping strategies emerge to deal with unintended attention. I’d love to hear what strategies people use to control this facet of their identity.
I saw my student implement one strategy yesterday – she had video of her very drunken housemate being very stupid. And she wouldn’t even download it off the camera, because “she’s a teacher and it would hurt her if it ever got out.” Instead, she just deleted the file off the device – to her, the risk to her friend wasn’t worth keeping it.
It seems that, in the future, friends don’t let friends make fools of themselves online.
