In Search of my Self… Online Self

by AJ Madabawita

 

“To me, my online identity is not an alter ego, not a fake personality, it’s me plain and simple. Each social outlet represents how I communicate, express myself, my passion and work, my ideas and opinions. The way I see, the way I talk, the way I act in real life is less way I conduct myself online. “

 

Hello.

 

I am going to tell you a little story about how Instagram help me understand what “online identity” meant and where I am with it now…

 

Of all social platforms, Instagram has always been an outlet that genuinely enjoyed using, mainly because It gave me an opportunity to paint the pictures that were in my head, publish all my creative work, and provide me with an audience to create too. But it took me a while to get to the persona I have built fairly recently. My Instagram “identity” started in 2014. And in retrospect, I was sharing to the world a digitalized version of myself at the time. As a 14-year-old, there weren’t many opportunities available for me to be creative, so I resorted to posting fairly boring selfies, pictures of food, and family, friends.

But a few years later, I rebooted my online identity (by rebooting, I mean deleting everything and posting new content) and this was across all platforms. I decided that I wanted to be professional, so I switched my Instagram account to a business profile and connected my email and Facebook for strictly business-related connections. I started posting photographs as a “photographer” hoping to become a professional photographer on Instagram. It was somewhat successful, I started receiving a greater number of followers and traction to my profile. I was truly enjoying until I reached a certain obstacle. See I was so conscious about being “professional” that I forgot about being personal. In making this account, I purposely disconnected myself from well… being myself; Being carefree and casual, I was so lost in this abstract concept of being creative meant I had to be professional.

A visual representation of being a “Professional”

So I decided to make another Instagram account, a personal account, I never posted that much, I used to interact with my friends again and be goofy and casual. But this “dual online identity” was tiring and eventually I realized that it wasn’t enjoyable anymore, I didn’t really care about how well my professional account was doing and I was nervous to post casual, simple photographs of my self and others after being fixated about being professional on the platform. And this is where things took a turn for the worst, in late 2017 somehow all my social accounts got hacked… which was scary at first, I lost all control, somewhere, someone had anonymously taken over my “social identity” But hidden in that tragedy was another window for me to start over, to create my perfect social identity, where it wasn’t a fabricated version of myself or a desperate attempt to be like everyone else, I So came my third and hopefully final attempt on conduct my “social identity.”

So, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to my new and improved Online Identity. Hers a little run down of how it operates…

“Facebook” is my communication platform, in which I use to connect with my friends, certain businesses, and possible future clients. I maintain a friendly, casual and somewhat humorous attitude so I wouldn’t scare anyone off.

Snapchat is a window into my really personal life. Though I don’t necessarily post or communicate with many people on it, it still provides me with an outlet to broadcast a “behind the scenes” of my personal life, where I am, who I am with, my content and progress.

My Snapchat, the window into my personal life…

As for Twitter, it acts a platform for me to promote/ advertise my content, projects or even voice my random rants and thoughts to a general public.

 

And finally, there is Instagram, the place where I post photographs both professional, artistic and both goofy and personal. It’s a place where I can visually express myself, all the creative content I have jumbling in my head

I present to you… My Instagram Page..

 

Though each of these may seem separate and different from each other, they make my “online identity,” this is who I am, both virtually and in reality. Each outlet voices a different faction of myself, and each exists to create well… me. Though having an online alter ego would definitely spice my life up a bit, being myself, interacting and communicating with other the same way I would in real life is the type of identity I want to peruse creating.

 

Still don’t get it… here this a quote I found in the article called “How different are your online and offline personalities?” by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in which he states, and I quote “

Although we are more than the history of our browser, it is feasible that our web searches and web page visits, emails and social network activity contain traces of our personality.”

 

Reference :

 

(ALL IMAGES ARE MINE)

 

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015). How different are your online and offline personalities?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/sep/24/online-offline-personality-digital-identity [Accessed 20 Apr. 2018].

 

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