Blog 3 - Contemplating my Online Identity

            My identity online is something I’ve given much thought to, not only in all my classes in MCC, but also on my own or in discussion with friends and family. I find identity and self-presentation fascinating, especially in social media sites, which act as a sort of “perfect storm” of identity mediation.

Personally, I’ve never been one to “list” off tastes, although I did have an embarrassing phase where I’d list what I believed to be quirky or weird things. Cue me as that jerk, “Oh, I just love cardigans, bright nail polish and Star Wars!” See? I’m irreverent and you can’t put me in a box! Cue the eye rolls. While I am (thankfully) out of this phase and no longer list tastes, I do think links I post speak to my tastes in different way. Whether it be the content – a music video, article, show clip, etc- or the source, it is saying something about me. If I post a clip from Bill O’Reilly (I don’t) it says something different than if I post an article I liked on Jezebel or The New York Times.

Further, not only do I find that my friends and I have similar tastes, as indicated by the endless links we share, but I also gravitate towards people who like or discuss content that I like, as well. For example, I had classes with a girl, and liked her, but we bonded as she would post 30 Rock quotes and stills, and it was really from Facebook and Twitter that we started to hang out “IRL.”

            As I’ve aged, I change my information less and less, mostly because the information provided is the bare minimum. I have a vague Twitter profile, although I do maintain a separate, public one for class, since I like to tweet without hesitation on my private one. When I was younger, however, I changed my profile practically every hour. My AOL profile felt to me as the only “true” extension of myself during the beginning of my angsty adolescence. I needed to change my “Relationship status” every week to reflect the changes of my 12-year-old love life, and if a new quote inspired me, I needed to share that, too. I grew out of that eventually, with a brief stint putting bad alternative rock quotes as my AIM away message, and went completely in the opposite direction.

Now I hate sharing any information,  and am active more in communicating with others than in changing my pictures, information, statuses, etc. I’ve become very cynical about much of this action, as well. Someone who constantly posts statuses or changes their relationship status often I see as engaging in a twisted sort of publicity stunt. Sometimes I fear that Facebook, MySpace, AOL, Twitter and other sites have given us this constant platform for our voices, which while great, has blinded us to the value of meaningful silence.

 

Ceci Diaz