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Author Topic:   your on-line personality
juicescholar

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posted February 12, 2001 09:24 AM

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a question for all: how much do you think your online personality parallels your off-line identity? are you somebody totally different here in cyberspace than you are once you click "exit"?

this is interesting to me because - being in university - theorists get a hard-on when they talk about the internet; about how we can all just reinvent ourselves, go around shapeshifting, etc. but most people here seem to be relatively consistent personalities - sexual orientations included, in most cases. the big issues seem to me to be privacy and security, rather than re-invention. i'd love to hear some thoughts on this issue from folks who've been involved for a while...

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vixenbabe

Amateur Bodybuilder

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From:Ohio
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posted February 12, 2001 09:31 AM

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I'm me where ever I travel. I know no other way to be!

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danielson

Amateur Bodybuilder

Posts: 237
From:london
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posted February 12, 2001 09:40 AM

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i guess you can be a lot more candid about online stuff, theres a degree of anominity (spellings not my strong point anymore).

as for inhibitions i guess your a lot more unhibited on the web, but alcohol does that so maybe not.

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I is a brown belt in kama sutra, aiii

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havoc

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From:The 27th Century, USAtiva
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posted February 12, 2001 09:40 AM

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This is me.

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juicescholar

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posted February 12, 2001 09:40 AM

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so if a complete stranger came up to you at a bus-stop and started asking "what are you like when you're NOT at a bus-stop?", you'd answer him like you did me? it wouldn't be any different?

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WODIN

Mutant

Posts: 3175
From:Look Behind You!!!
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posted February 12, 2001 09:43 AM

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I am who I am.

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TxCollegeguy

Elite Bodybuilder

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posted February 12, 2001 09:45 AM

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I would answer a person straight up in most cases including a bus stop. Grant it most of us don't just throw all of our private lifes on here. That being said I don't mind answering any type of question as long as it doesn't get taken overboard

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kat

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posted February 12, 2001 09:55 AM

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This is me....what do I have to prove and to whom? If I was to lie, I wouldn't set myself up to have a new asshole ripped for me by Matt all the time.

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juicescholar

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posted February 12, 2001 10:07 AM

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okay - another question then since i'm getting the idea that everyone feels like (with nods to wodin) they are who they are. i have no idea who here is black, white, hispanic, etc. in modern america, race plays a big deal in everyday life (or instead of race, say sex) - but "out here", it can't. doesn't that sort of change "who you are" in the sense that it changes how you act? you can be free to do things you wouldn't otherwise be able to? just asking.

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strengthmonster

Elite Bodybuilder

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From:uk
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posted February 12, 2001 11:03 AM

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I have no reason to pretend to be something/someone I am not. What would this accomplish? I think I'd be very sad indeed if I did. Also my personal circle of friends are from many different racial backgrounds so that would make no difference to me either.

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john937

Pro Bodybuilder

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posted February 12, 2001 11:56 AM

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In the imortal words of Buckaroo Bonzai:
"Wherever you go, there YOU are."

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lpw

Amateur Bodybuilder

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posted February 12, 2001 01:33 PM

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In any situation, a person's behavior will be mediated by social conventions. How one greets one's boss ("Good morning, Sir.") is going to be different than how one greets one's friends ("What's up?") or one's lover ("Hey baby"). Similarly, how one behaves on the internet will be different as well. To some degree, we each conform to the perceived expectations of that particular situation. In other words, one's projected self-image is always mediated by external circumstance. The internet is not unique in this respect.

However, the anonimity of the internet removes these mitigating factors to the extent that we never konw much about our audience, so rather than being someone else, I tend to think that people are actually more themselves. In other words, there actions and words are closer to their own perceived self-image than they would be if you met them in an interview or at a bus-stop. There is less, not more, pretending here, I think.

As an aside, I lie a lot on the internet. I make up stories about my past, I claim to be things that I'm not, and I write and behave in a manner totally inconsistent with my other forms of communication.

Does that mean that my internet persona is completely different than the real me? Not really. Rather, I think that although the episodes of a story I create may be fictional, the behaviors and values I display in them are not. I do not believe in abortion rights on the web, and oppose them in real life. I would not make-up a story about how I sleep around on the web unless there was some part of me which fantasized about doing it and wanted (at least on some level) to try it. Ultimately, we behave differently in every situation, but the thing that unifies us is our own self-perception (which I believe is closely tied to our sense of morality). That remains intact when we are on the internet just like anywhere else.

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juicescholar

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posted February 12, 2001 03:06 PM

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great post, lpw. i agree with you - in the sense of removing certain contextual boundaries affords people chances to reveal parts of themselves they wouldn't otherwise. i guess i was wondering if people felt what certain theorists call "liberated"; without bodies (and therefore wihtout race, sex, attractiveness, etc. to be judged by), people are free to make themselves into anyone they want to pretend to be - even if only for a moment. and yet...most people (as the posts above suggest) choose to remain themselves. i think that's really fascinating. given the possibility to pretend to be anything, people on this board would rather be...themselves (as they perceive themselves). i wonder if that says that we're happy with who we are, or just unimaginative. or - in my case - a little of both?

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CrazyThug

Cool Novice

Posts: 49
From:on da streets slangin thangs
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posted February 12, 2001 03:15 PM

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Some similarities.

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Hugh Gellatts

Elite Bodybuilder

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posted February 12, 2001 04:46 PM

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You can't assume that the people around you everyday are really being their "true" selves. I know the image I project in person is very different from who I really am. In that sense I am often being "truer" when I communicate through writing.

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Sailor_Girl

Elite Bodybuilder

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From:The Land of the Cheese
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posted February 12, 2001 04:53 PM

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I'm a little more "provocative" online than I am in real life.

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Steelheart

Olympian

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posted February 12, 2001 05:01 PM

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I am really a big weenie. Im not 215lbs and dieting to 9%.... I am really 95lbs who wishes I could tip the scales at 100lbs. For some reason when Im on this board I suddenly feel huge! I talk like I know allot about training when in reality I just read an article in Musclemag International.!

------------------
To Prevent Temptation-Perform Masterbation

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lpw

Amateur Bodybuilder

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posted February 12, 2001 05:20 PM

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quote:
Originally posted by juicescholar:
i wonder if that says that we're happy with who we are, or just unimaginative. or - in my case - a little of both?

I was thinking about this, too, and I believe the two are intertwined. On the one hand, I think it would be terribly difficult to go through life not being happy with who you are - and again, I identify this perceived self-image largely with our moral self-image. I might feel too fat, or I might hate my job, but basically I like myself and think I am a good person. Similarly, most people would say that even if they don't give to charity enough, or if they lose their temper, they are still not evil people.

When people role-play on the web, or to use your term, "feel liberated", I don't think that they feel liberated from their own moral compass. And they don't feel liberated from their morality because they truly believe in it (and are thus not so creative). So being happy with yourself, in a sense, inhibits a certain kind of creativity (re-invention). That's what I mean by saying that the two are intertwined.

To put it another way, our morality is who we are. To assume an alternative morality on the web would be to somehow challenge the legitmacy of our real morality - and that's too scary for most people to do.

By the way, it is true that anonimity can sometimes cause people to suspend their morality. For example, when criminals where ski mask,s or when people are part of a mob and their private self is sublimated (sp?) to the larger mob (aka "mob mentality"), but I think these instances are rare and don't quite fit the internet model.

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latona

Pro Bodybuilder

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posted February 12, 2001 05:34 PM

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lpw is totally wrong about self-image; the truth is people are not proud but vain. That is, they are more concerned with what others think about them than what they think about themselves. Even on the web, we want to be liked, so we are not liberated from social conventions on the web any more than we are in our daily lives. We talk and act in a way that we think others will approve of. Any moral wrangling occurs within ourselves, like Schumann's alter egos Eusebius and Florestan, but when we face the world, we conform to how we want to be seen by others.

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juicescholar

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posted February 13, 2001 10:41 AM

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i'm also a little confused by the pride/vanity distinction. if one's self perception is tied up with one's morality (that is, the idea of how the self should act based on the idea of how the world should be), then surely - as self-perception shifts, so too would morality. and i think the internet can really change one's self perception - for example, discovering that you can talk dirty (as a mighty many on this board can), or that you can use anabolics to achieve what you want with your body, or that you have something in common with hundreds of other people that you never knew existed. that affects the way we see ourselves - i would even go so far as to say it invites us to become different people, in however a small way.

but then, what does this mean morally? sorry to go on about this, but let me ask one more question - the fact that you can talk like this, in cyberspace, without the real fear of retribution (except for the tearing of a "new asshole", see post above), means that you can talk about things you might not otherwise - and experiment. i wonder what things people have done as a result of their experiences on the net that they wouldn't have done otherwise - anabolics, etc. anyone?

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lpw

Amateur Bodybuilder

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posted February 13, 2001 12:21 PM

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quote:
Originally posted by juicescholar:
[B that affects the way we see ourselves - i would even go so far as to say it invites us to become different people, in however a small way.[/B]

Clearly, you have given this topic much more thought than I have. I agree with virtually everything you said, however, I'd like to raise one question regarding the statement quoted above. If the internet changes our self-perception, wouldn't this shift also be manifest in our everyday lives, as well? I agree that we might grow in new ways from our encounters on the internet; but that growth would manifest itself both on and off the web. I am not contesting the notion that we change , but that we have two separate selves -an internet one and a "real" one. We might only be able to show one side of ourselves on the web (just like we can talk in different ways in many other contexts, too), but we are still one person unified by our moral view of ourselves. Or are you advocating that there is no self and we are really just a collection of the masks and postures we assume for separate occassions?

I hope this makes some sense. I never studied psychology or sociology in school (I was a math major), so I am not really qualified to make sweeping statements about human behavior. These are just some thoughts based on my personal experience.

One other question (if you'll indulge me), why are you asking these questions? Is this just out of personal curiosity or are you a student of some kind?

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over-the-top

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posted February 13, 2001 12:31 PM

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I would of done AS whether there was the internet or not this site just gave me a shitload of good info!

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juicescholar

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posted February 13, 2001 12:35 PM

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quote:
Originally posted by lpw:

One other question (if you'll indulge me), why are you asking these questions? Is this just out of personal curiosity or are you a student of some kind?[/B]

lpw - what can i say? i'm a student, but the nice thing about the university (as you may know) is that you can research things that interest you personally. i've decided to go with these questions to you all because i'm tired of academicians just "assuming" that they can sit back and tell us what the internet is doing to us. there's all this hoopla about "new" subjectivities, "new" conceptions of the person, etc. but few theorists think to actually ask the people who are actively using the internet. from what i'm seeing so far, most people find the internet fairly anticlimactic in that regard. there's nothing all that "new" about it, save for the technology that allows people to have conversations like this one. but what we're saying isn't all that different from what we're saying elsewhere. so i agree with you - the way the net changes us isn't all that radical of a departure from the way the rest of our daily lives change us. or is it?

so - that's why i asked the last question. can anyone give me examples of having done something as a result of their use of the internet and chatboards like this one that they wouldn't have done otherwise? does anyone feel like they're "different" for having used the 'net?

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Latimer

Olympian

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posted February 13, 2001 04:34 PM

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I'm more reserved online than I am in person in a relaxed environment.

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superdave

Elite Bodybuilder

Posts: 936
From:San Fernando Valley, circa 1977.
Registered: Sep 2000

posted February 13, 2001 10:54 PM

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When you lead the hectic, fast paced life of a serial killer, this place gives me the needed outlet to relax and just be "me".

------------------
Redemption.

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latona

Pro Bodybuilder

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From:
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posted February 14, 2001 12:59 AM

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Well, this very post is an example of one thing I wouldn't have been able to do without the internet -- talk with you! Seriously, chat boards like this bring me contact with people I most likely would never meet.

Case 1: I live in New England and I take it from your parole that you are from the old England. I don't get to chat with Brits, too often in real life, but it's much easier to do on the web.

Case 2: There are straight guys on this board who wouldn't even give me the time of day if they met me in real life, but here we discuss everything from politics to sex to alien invasions (see another post).

Case 3: I can't think of more than two or three people I would talk to about AAS. But, on this board, I can exchange thoughts and experiences on this subject with hundreds of people. And, as a result, I have discovered that I have something in common with a much broader population - people who I would never otherwise meet. Perhaps, more surprising, I have also discovered that I have alot more in common with many of them besides 'roids, despite differences in race, ethnicity, class, gender or age.

I think this type of extended community is the major impact of the internet.

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SMASH NZ

Amateur Bodybuilder

Posts: 158
From:NZ
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posted February 14, 2001 05:28 AM

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I am very new to the internet and I agree with you latona, you can discuss things here that that you may not to be able to discuss with your mates.

Most of my mates are hunters, that is what I love , but there is such a pool of knowledge here... I don't think I've ever asked a question here that hasn't been answered.

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