Identification
Jul. 11th, 2006 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katiefooleryHave you ever wanted to pretend you were someone else?
And no, I don’t mean in the sense where you pretend to be someone else to the extent where you convince little old ladies that you’re a completely lovely person, shortly before stealing all of their bank account details and running off with their life savings.
Thankfully, I’m talking about something a bit less larcenous than that. Simply: The Internet and Identity... and you.
I’ve only been on the internet since 2000 and I haven’t always been the “Buneater”. That took a while to develop and I’m fond of having such a silly name, since it was more or less given to me friends and fellow loons. In all of those six years, I’ve always been me. I’ve never tried to pretend I was something other than I was, mostly because it never occurred to me to do so. Indeed, it took me long enough to summon up the courage to write my first post on the old Ober.net messageboards; there wasn’t enough time to consider being somebody else as well.
Lately, however, I’ve been thinking of this issue of identity. I’ve been wondering how it would be to start again on another messageboard with a different name. Would I still be me? Would I be influenced by the new people I met?
And above all: could I pretend to be someone different?
It would be fun to try. After all, I do love my words. In my favourite story, Postcards, I believe I successfully wrote in the voices of at least half a dozen distinctly different people. I could probably develop a different way of writing and consistently apply it. The question is: would I really want to?
And I’m also interested to know: does anyone out there have a double-identity? Are you a different person when you’re on different sites or messageboards on the internet? This nosy Buneater wants to know all!
And no, I don’t mean in the sense where you pretend to be someone else to the extent where you convince little old ladies that you’re a completely lovely person, shortly before stealing all of their bank account details and running off with their life savings.
Thankfully, I’m talking about something a bit less larcenous than that. Simply: The Internet and Identity... and you.
I’ve only been on the internet since 2000 and I haven’t always been the “Buneater”. That took a while to develop and I’m fond of having such a silly name, since it was more or less given to me friends and fellow loons. In all of those six years, I’ve always been me. I’ve never tried to pretend I was something other than I was, mostly because it never occurred to me to do so. Indeed, it took me long enough to summon up the courage to write my first post on the old Ober.net messageboards; there wasn’t enough time to consider being somebody else as well.
Lately, however, I’ve been thinking of this issue of identity. I’ve been wondering how it would be to start again on another messageboard with a different name. Would I still be me? Would I be influenced by the new people I met?
And above all: could I pretend to be someone different?
It would be fun to try. After all, I do love my words. In my favourite story, Postcards, I believe I successfully wrote in the voices of at least half a dozen distinctly different people. I could probably develop a different way of writing and consistently apply it. The question is: would I really want to?
And I’m also interested to know: does anyone out there have a double-identity? Are you a different person when you’re on different sites or messageboards on the internet? This nosy Buneater wants to know all!