BEDA Entry 13: Misimagining Others Online
How different is your online voice to your "real life" voice?
I recently debated this question after adding a new friend on a social-networking site a couple of months back. Now, I wouldn't say this guy is totally different online than he is in person, but the difference is definitely apparent to me. In person, he seems very laid-back and friendly, while on the internet, he seems much more serious and sarcastic.
Of course, this all comes back to the idea that we misimagine people all the time and that they are much more complex than we sometimes see (Yes, I just paraphrased John). I would say our internet-selves are just another context that we live in, and just like any "real life" context, we behave differently for whatever reason. For example, when we are talking to a teacher, boss, or someone in authority over us, we usually act differently than we would around a peer or a friend. I would argue that that's part of our nature (or perhaps the way we are nurtured to be).
In analyzing myself, I've come to see that my internet self is also quite different from my "real life" self. I wouldn't say that I'm not me, but having the time to think about what I'm going to say in the blogs I post might give certain illusions about me. I certainly cannot speak as eloquently as I write (if I can even say that I write eloquently). I think my online videos might shed some light to that, but talking to yourself in a video is not the same as a conversation. My brother has pointed out to me that I speak weirdly in my videos, but it seems that we might all be that way unless we talk to cameras all the time. I've also noticed that I can be much more serious on the internet than I am IRL. My blogs don't generally (or even usually) reflect the conversations I have with people outside the internet. They seem to represent my inner-voice more than my external voice, which is really odd to imagine for me. I guess my textual and video voices just don't seem to be a fully authentic representation of me.
While all of this is fine, it's hard for me to imagine my strictly online friends in an offline context. The voices I create for them in my head while I'm reading their text just isn't the same. I realized this yesterday when a friend I haven't seen since 10th grade posted a YouTube vlog. I hadn't heard her real voice in so long that I had forgotten it.
So, to sum up this ramble, how different is your online-self from your offline-self? Have you met any of your online friends IRL? If so, were they much different from what you imagined? Ever had an online relationship go offline? What about friends you knew IRL first that you have kept in touch with online? Let me know!
I recently debated this question after adding a new friend on a social-networking site a couple of months back. Now, I wouldn't say this guy is totally different online than he is in person, but the difference is definitely apparent to me. In person, he seems very laid-back and friendly, while on the internet, he seems much more serious and sarcastic.
Of course, this all comes back to the idea that we misimagine people all the time and that they are much more complex than we sometimes see (Yes, I just paraphrased John). I would say our internet-selves are just another context that we live in, and just like any "real life" context, we behave differently for whatever reason. For example, when we are talking to a teacher, boss, or someone in authority over us, we usually act differently than we would around a peer or a friend. I would argue that that's part of our nature (or perhaps the way we are nurtured to be).
In analyzing myself, I've come to see that my internet self is also quite different from my "real life" self. I wouldn't say that I'm not me, but having the time to think about what I'm going to say in the blogs I post might give certain illusions about me. I certainly cannot speak as eloquently as I write (if I can even say that I write eloquently). I think my online videos might shed some light to that, but talking to yourself in a video is not the same as a conversation. My brother has pointed out to me that I speak weirdly in my videos, but it seems that we might all be that way unless we talk to cameras all the time. I've also noticed that I can be much more serious on the internet than I am IRL. My blogs don't generally (or even usually) reflect the conversations I have with people outside the internet. They seem to represent my inner-voice more than my external voice, which is really odd to imagine for me. I guess my textual and video voices just don't seem to be a fully authentic representation of me.
While all of this is fine, it's hard for me to imagine my strictly online friends in an offline context. The voices I create for them in my head while I'm reading their text just isn't the same. I realized this yesterday when a friend I haven't seen since 10th grade posted a YouTube vlog. I hadn't heard her real voice in so long that I had forgotten it.
So, to sum up this ramble, how different is your online-self from your offline-self? Have you met any of your online friends IRL? If so, were they much different from what you imagined? Ever had an online relationship go offline? What about friends you knew IRL first that you have kept in touch with online? Let me know!