Online personalities - more human than human?

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This probably ties into loads of other recent threads but, I remember this quote from Florian Schneider saying that "Synthesizers give a truer reflection of the person playing them than an acoustic instrument", and I'm still puzzling over that, but - by the same token, does somebody's 'online' presence inadvertently give a more realistic picture of the person than the collection of gestures and mannerisms that constitute their presence in RL? Do e-mails give away more than quilled epistles?

― tarden, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hmm - qn seems to imply an existence of "the person" beyond what they do (on or offline) which I'm not entirely sure about.

― Tom, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Alright, to compensate for what Tom is saying, I'm going with the premise that every person is comprised of many multiple selves, which can differ slightly or greatly depending on both external environments and circumstances, and interaction with others.

So the "self" that I am going to call my "True Self" is the interaction that I have within my inner dialogue.

My online personality and my offline sober personality are very, very different. However, my online personality and my drunk personality (or my personality when relaxing with friends with whom I feel very comfortable) are fairly similar. Both of those states (online and drunk) mirror the sort of ranting, freeform, stream of consciousness radiobabble chatter that goes on constantly inside my head.

When I am drunk, I suffer from less filters and less inhibitions. Same thing happens through the internet, because of the solitary nature of communication with the medium- it's like all our inner dialogues are having inner dialogues with each other, instead of merely our own selves. Even people I know in RL, I can have very different communication on the net, because of this.

So yes, I think I am closer to my true self when I'm online, especially in a forum such as this one.

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I think I'm far more confident and likeable in person. I wouldn't say I'm walking around with some heavy armour and ten layers of masks tho... That said, sometimes the 'textual' me is far closer to the real, when I'm alone, me - so yes, that would mean I'm less likeable than people who like me think I am. The damned fools.

― Kim, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Actually Tom, you are correct. Let's use 'self' = 'aggregate or consensus of public perceptions of totality of person's characteristics and actions", not some nebulous 'soul'.

― tarden, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I feel quite fluent when I'm writing, it's a strength that I have. I'm also a fast typist. I do have the same persona IRL once people get to know me, but I give off the effect of being more reserved in person. I guess I'm energetic, and I don't want to overwhelm people in person with that, whereas people are free to disregard what you say online.

― Kerry, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Or alternately, whatever you imagine yourself to be at any given moment.

― tarden, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Without getting too deep into what it means to be human etc. -- it's 6 am and all out here ;-) -- the Net is useful in part because a public persona can be presented and easily modified, even edited. It can be truer than the real you (nobody knows if you're a one-celled amoeba on the net but they'll know your mind at the least, or what you choose to show of it).

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I think people are LESS human online. Most people present what they believe to be their desirable characteristics and little else on a forum such as this, and it's a bit of a cruel trick because it invariably leads to real life disappointment.

For the record, I'm a much nicer person in real life.

― Ally, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I can come across as incredibly unapproachable in public, until people get to know me. Seeing me at Strange Fruit, which is where most people do see me, is a disaster too. I tend to look horrifically worried and run about in a state of constant worry. I'm not like that really. So maybe the online me is closer to the real me, but not 100% who I am.

― Paul Strange, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In real life I am more than just words. I am wonky eyed, short arsed clown with exquisite banana skin timing.

― Pete, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Kate you are so Jungian

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I like trousers.

― Nude Spock, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have some horrendous built-in honesty handicap, so all you get on here is me typing instead of speaking.

― DG, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

my online persona is more "upbeat" than RL.

― duane, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

If I revealed all the personas I post as, you would see "me" (="us") rocket up the stat-cock, past Kate AND Ally. (Always supposing one of them is not one of "me"...)

― M.A.N.I.P.U.L.A.T.E.D...., Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

sinker you are...freaking me out

stop acting...wierd..,

― duane, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I sure hope you're not Kate!

― Paul Strange, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Speaking of riding the statcock rocket..

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

If Mark puts on a wig, he looks exactly like me.

― Ally, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

i'm probably not very different online or in person really. whether this is a good thing or not, i have no idea.

― gareth, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

mark, am I one of you? I don't feel like a 'mark'. How could I tell?

― Kim, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Wow, this is basically what my dissertation is all about! Online identity, Sherry Turkle goes on about multiplicity (not the film with Michael Keaton)...and post modernism, and how people can play different roles online. Anonymity empowers..."virtually realising personal dreams" Bromberg (1996). From my own research, I feel that young people are more honest online, and are seeking to "find themselves"...My dissertation will be finished around the end of August, I'll post a link!

― james e l, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

James, I agree. I was pretty confused way back in the early nineties before I went online, and it's really helped me organize my thoughts and opinions on things. I think it's made me a much more confident person.

― Kerry, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Jungian-er than Yesterday...

Watch out for the assumed personality crisis. I was on a mailing list once which imploded under the sheer weight of people's assumed personalities getting into arguments with one another.

One of my fake personalities got into what I thought was a fake flamewar with one of the admin's fake personalities, but then he threw a fit, because it turned out I had guessed it was him, and he hadn't guessed it was me. It was very, very confusing, and next thing I knew, our entire internet community had cracked in half.

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

My online personality is pretty much how I am...

― JM, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Give a boy an e-mail account and he will tell the truth.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I've noticed when I meet people in real life I met online that they are basically as I expected them, and often even better. Its hard to express online tones of voice that make it known you are being sarcastic or kidding.

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In real life I am a robot. Like Bruce WIllis in the Sixth Sense.

― bnw, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I'm pretty much the same. Although I've got an online persona, it's one of the personas I tend to adopt very often in real life. JM and I, once, in high school, in a deeply treasured memory of mine, were sitting on the steps, bullshitting. We're doing impersonations or something. JM looks at me and sez "I forgot what my real voice sounds like." Go Modernity!

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I am a poet and i write alot of essays. my poetic personailty is quirky, elliptical, sort of random and personal. My essay perosnality is analyitc and cold. I like to think i am a poet on ILE.

― anthony, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I am Student Grant on ILE = possible zelig-like behavior, though probably not.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I am pretty much the same online as off, except that it is much easier to tell when I'm kidding around or being sarcastic 'live'. Possibly this stems from the Dumb British Attitude that Americans Don't Get Sarcasm And Irony, I am here to show that this is soooooo untrue. Also I tend to talk about Work more offline with my offline fwiends.

― suzy, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

six years pass...

http://www.wired.com/images/article/wide/2007/05/anakin_syndrome_wide.jpg

― gershy, Friday, 25 April 2008 04:54 (sixteen years ago) link

weaksauce

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 25 April 2008 05:02 (sixteen years ago) link

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver 1405
El Tomboto 1259

^^^^^ heckuva job

― gershy, Friday, 25 April 2008 05:19 (sixteen years ago) link

vacation

― El Tomboto, Friday, 25 April 2008 05:20 (sixteen years ago) link

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