Social Networking .. Lets Get Real (or not)
Ahh reality .. now theres a slippery concept. Show me the person who says they can define it precisely and I’ll show you a fool. Lets have a chat about ‘reality’ and online ‘identity’ today unless you’re in a rush to be off somewhere else.
Take Facebook and Myspace. In theory they’re all about reality. You post a ‘real’ picture of yourself and ‘real’ details about your life and share them with your ‘real’ friends. In some cases thats exactly what happens but in others its exactly what *doesn’t* happen. The ‘real’ picture someone posts there may not ‘really’ be them. The ‘real’ details may be made up. The ‘real’ friends are, in many cases, total strangers. You read stories on a regular basis that confirm this. There was the teenage girl driven to suicide by a broken romance with a ‘boy’ on Facebook who in reality was the mother of a girl in her class carrying out a vendetta. There was the long-running romance a girl had with this dreamy US military guy who turned out to be another woman. A useful lesson I learned, which I’ll freely share, is this … some things that seem ‘real’ can be more unreal than others which don’t.
Tumblr (and Stumbleupon) differ from Facebook or Myspace et al. Their emphasis is on blogging (Tumblr) and content discovery/sharing (Stumbleupon) rather than ‘social-networking’. Many choose to post ‘anonymously’ here, to have a ‘non-personal’ avatar and an online presence that isn’t all about themselves. They post about ideas, issues and interests instead. Some people with a conventional ‘Facebook’ mindset find this anonymity strange or even downright suspicious but many value the differentiation from other networks. One of the main reasons I like Tumblr (and Stumbleupon) is because I am deeply uneasy about the whole idea of opening your life life up to total strangers online. Not everyone does that on other networks, of course, but millions do. Cool if thats your thing but I don’t buy into it
But why would anyone not want to share personal information about themselves, like pictures and details of their lives, some people ask ? What harm can there be in that ? Well, for a start security experts always advise us to be very careful about posting any personal details whatsoever online. Leaving a public trail of your personal identity, actions and even indiscretions online can create all kinds of problems, not only criminal but social, professional and emotional. For example, I have a friend who posts strong views about politics but works for the government in a job that prohibits any public expression of political bias. I know someone else, a teacher in the ‘bible-belt’, who would be silly to make her romantic preferences a matter of pubic record. People have lives outside of the internet.
Whether anyone chooses to live their life in public online or retain their privacy is entirely a matter of personal choice. There are pros and cons to each approach and neither would suit or be appropriate for everyone. If someone wants to post personal pictures of themselves and details of their lives online thats fine with me, as long as they understand the risks they’re running and that what they perceive as ‘reality’ often isn’t. If someone else chooses to use a non-personal avatar and pseudonym to post about ideas and issues then thats fine by me too. Its really not my place to question other peoples choices about privacy.
Because I use a cartoon avatar I often get asked ‘but what are you really like?’ and while I’m flattered by the interest I always reply politely that if anyone reads my blog they”ll know. The silly humor is me and the left-wing, bleedin’-heart-liberal, socialist, pinko, commie, agitator rants are me too. The issues I discuss are those that interest me. Its all me, for good or ill. I’m just here to relax, learn, and share some thoughts and ideas. A bit of creativity, a bit of letting off steam and a bit of fun. I enjoy that. People who have talked to me for a while and earned my trust sometimes get to know more about me than I post and that works fine. Beyond that anyones curiosity is their own problem and not mine.
Me ? Well I don’t think my way is the only way. I’m friendly within the limits of what I feel safe and comfortable with online. I try to enjoy what others offer without fretting about what they don’t offer. I try to not take things too seriously. But then what do I know ? I’m just a cartoon ..:))
Ellie
