Identification

[katiefoolery]

Have 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!

Comments

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

I've done it before, i have to admit. And it didn't last. One thing was i went a little insane keeping up so many different personalities and 'lives'. And i couldn't keep and hold onto friends when i was trying to be something i wasn't. It was just too hard. But with ober, i am who i am, and had no choice in this from the beginning (seeing as i knew Kayt in RL anyway) and have made some of my closest friends there. Whereas on the other message boards i was on, because i wasn't me, i couldn't keep people's attention long enough, and i had this part of me that felt guilty when they told me a little bit of themselves because i wasn't letting them in at all.

I like Flit. I like Flippyfrog. Flit is becoming more and more my real identity these days then Jenny is. I suppose that's probably something to be worried about. But somehow i'm not

[the-kaytinator.livejournal.com]

I'm me.

Why would I want to be someone else online. I'd still be me, sitting at my computer, and because I'm still me, I'd still have whatever problems and challenges I have.

Seems silly to not be me online. It won't change me offline.

[saltedpin.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting question, and I suppose it really depends on your perspective -- if I'm posting on a community or messageboard I can sometime adopt a different tone, just because I'm writing for strangers then and so think it's normal to be a little more polite (or less casual, at any rate) than if I'm just blabbering in my own journal. I'm more likely to take care that my grammar and spelling are correct. I use different names and logins for things, but that's generally just so I can keep the passwords straight in my head (and usually it's just logins -- I would sign with my own name). I wouldn't say really though that this constitues a whole other identity, however.

When I changed LJ names it was forced by circumstance, but I don't think I behave too much differently on this one than I did on the old one... :p

[minnn.livejournal.com]

I'm me as well :P I can't hide if I try.
I have had multiple accounts, though. I had a "mule" once on Gaia, but it was purely to generate more gold at a time when I wanted something :-P
I also have a "member" on obernet (good ol' Maruman the guinea pig), who purely exists so I can test things on a member's account.
Nothing sinister though, and no pretending I'm not who I actually am *blinks*

Essentially, we (you, I, Av, Clare, Em) are "another person" occasionally - the grand overlord Elspeth :-P
In that case I see it as necessary if we're to retain our own identity. Elspeth allows us to mediate without it effecting our own enjoyment or status on the forums (we hope) in relation to other members. It's also essential if we're to retain the democracy or whatever it is that us 5 Moos have :P since most sign up systems insist on 1 administrator and as many as you want moderators, it seems far more fair in giving all 5 administrators access to the 'god' account.

But interacting with other people, pretending you're someone else to hoodwink other people...it seems like a desperate waste of time. People like that need to get a life.

[morbane.livejournal.com]

To some extent it's absolutely inevitable that in different situations, you display a different persona. Online I have always been a moderately different person to the one displayed on the street, in my jobs, or at Uni.

Deliberately creating an alternate persona whose facts are different to yours is somewhat exhilarating; it brings into your mind quite a lot of philosophising about how we really know what we know and how we can trust others' accounts in ordinary as well as Internet life. I find the effort amusing, but deeply damaging and depressing when it comes to extending that 'fake' personality into deeper friendships and more meaningful interactions with other people.

I created Yirry, but to compromise, I eventually revealed her status as an imaginary character, and retained her as a narrative voice, a sidekick, and a story; when people treat her as another person, they are choosing to play the game, not having one played on them.

At the same time, Yirry was far too much fun to completely abandon.

[yirry.livejournal.com]

You say that as if I have no independence.
Fear not, I know you believe the reverse. :)

[morbane.livejournal.com]

What kind of different person would you like to appear to be?

[frohike.livejournal.com]

I've sometimes gone into chat rooms and pretended to be a boy, just for the hell of it.

I actually think its impossible to be yourself online. In my opinion there's a compromise that takes place, between you and the keyboard. But I think that about RL too. You compromise yourself to make you more acceptable to the whole. It's actually a scientifically noted human behaviour. I don't know, I think I'm rambling. I guess it depends on how comfortable you feel either with the people or wherever you are it is that you're interracting. Like I'm more likely to "be myself" with Leigh than I am with say John Howard. If you're new to a website, you're likely to put your best foot forward as it were, and save your dark side for a later date.

[nikkidynamo.livejournal.com]

I have other journals.. I am still me, but they are the journals in which I write the things I am not so comfortable about everyone I know reading.. does that count?

[naelany.livejournal.com]

I've always pretty much been myself online. Even when playing RPG's, it's mostly been me. Well, as much as that's possible when playing an online version of AD&D-type stuff lol. But yeah, I've stayed fairly true to myself, or at least I'd like to think I have. Gosh...I just realized...I've been on the net for a decade now. Ok, I think I'm going to go faint now.....

[brydz42.livejournal.com]

I think that people who deliberately change aspects of their identity either do it for a creepy purpose or because they want to feel accepted. The only messageboards I post on are the Ober.net boards, and since that's a community faithfully built on accepting people for who they are etc, changing my identity has never been a problem :) It's interesting, though...especially when people say that they keep an LJ to put all the things they don't want to (or can't) share with RL people...that says to me that there are aspects of themselves that are being comprimised the other way around from what you're talking about...hmmm.

:P

is it comprimised or compromised?

[morbane.livejournal.com]

compromised :) because it has 'promised' in it.

It's odd to think that we are naturally being 'deceptive' in 'real life' situations yet that is often what is required, and supported by society, in order to fit in.

[seagull-fred.livejournal.com]

I've tried :) I've been myself, Seagull Fred, Bosco the Birthday Beetroot, and at least three types of Zev. But it's hard. And in the end, I've just ended up being myself, really. A bit quieter here, a bit more forthright there...I've hidden facts about myself here, there and everywhere. Dropped hints, laughed at the results of misinterpretations.

But I think the only way to really hold a different personality is to outright lie, and I refuse to do that.

So Bunne> your name would change, but there's the good ole line from the Lion King: "Oh, wot's in a name??" I don't think you'd be able to change your personality, though. You're too nice and helpful and quirky and...Buneaterish :) Strange compliment, but there ya go :)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Hehe - now I'm blushing! Thank-you muchly for such a lovely compliment, good Fred. :)

I certainly think it would be quite difficult to be somebody else, unless you tried incredibly hard. And as you said, the name doesn't matter. I think I'm the same person, no matter what my name.

Although, I do remember signing into an early Ober.net chat as "A bedspread" and fooling the good Gallivant quite effectively.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the internet gives us a chance to pull away if things get too difficult or closer than we'd like. Especially on LJ, it'd be quite easy to delete a journal, change a username or otherwise vanish into nothingness. Or is it just easier to share secrets with people you're unlikely to meet?

I think I'd be devastated if I found out that someone on Ober.net wasn't who they said they were. Hopefully, it would be incredibly unlikely. We're all united by the admiration of a series of books based on rather solid principles of decency towards others, so you'd have to hope we'd all like to uphold those principles. :D

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Wow! A decade! I'm impressed. :) Actually, it was thanks to my Swedish friend getting an email address that I made my first steps on the internet. It didn't take me long to get hooked, though.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Well, I hadn't really thought about that. I was mostly occupied with wondering how you would go about it or whether you'd actually have any choice in the matter.

[arieo.livejournal.com]

Well, I kind of have- but I guess I was still myself in a way. My friend wanted to ask a suspicious question without arousing suspicion :P so of course she got me to pose as her and do it instead! thanks a lot! So I had to post on this board...but I still asked the question as I would ask it myself, and I still typed in the same way. I don't think I could handle trying to be someone else all the time- I'd slip up in the end :D I've been on other message boards apart from ober.net, and I've acted the same way there as I act on ober.net I suppose. I think I do act differently in real life than I do on the net though- I'm a lot more open and talkative on the internet :P

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

You raise some good points here, Nomes. We all tend to behave differently depending on the circumstances or the people around us, don't we? I suppose it would be no different for different websites or messageboards.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

That seems more like protecting yourself than assuming a different identity. :) Either that, or you're an LJ addict like me.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

What have you created, Morbane? :) You know, it's been a long time since an update, Yirry. You can't let Morbane steal all the limelight.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I'm getting used to being called "Bunne" or "Bunly" whenever I'm around you lot in real life. Sometimes, it feels more like my name than "Katie", to be honest.

That's what I imagine - that assuming an identity like that would be a difficult thing to maintain. And how do you make genuine friends when you're not yourself, so to speak?

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's very true. And as I said to Flit, how do you make new friends online if you're assuming a different identity? It just sounds like a lot of work for no reward, really. :)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

No, you still seem like the same person to me. :)

I love the aspect of the internet where you're represented by your words. This is what makes me think I could assume a different identity, should I want to. Of course, I'm also inclined to think it's probably more work than it's worth.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Hehe - very true about Elspeth. Although I don't think I do a very good job of "being" Elspeth. I just use her as a way to be a neutral party. Even when I send a mass PM as Elf, the people who count always know it was me. :)

[nikkidynamo.livejournal.com]

a bit of both I think!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

How bizarre! I could understand your friend getting you to ask the question under a different username... but under her own? That's quite strange.

I do think it'd be quite hard to act differently unless you were trying really, really hard. There doesn't seem to be any point really, does there?

[silver-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Quite an interesting topic you've bought up there good bunne. I don't think I've ever really been a different person on the net or ayway, although I've definately shown different facits of myself in different places, eg a common example I definately act a lot more loony when I'm around SRers, that at other times, cos that's wot is expected then, it kinda is the intellegent thing to be doing to be expressing oneself in a witty mannor, whereas other times, I try to keep the looniness to a minimum so as to sound not completely insane and acctually sound like I do have a shred of maturity (although being a childcare worker helps with that, I'm kinda expected to act like a child sometimes).
That being said I have played tricks a couple of times, where I've been someone else, or someone's acomplice. First there was the thing at SR where I helped a friend to be Cupid and play a joke on Nomes, but I still maintain that we never acctually lied at any point. Nomes never asked if it was her, otherwise we would've said yes and we were very careful not to just say it's not...
The second time was at CO, when I took on the persona of guest. I really should've drawn that one out more, but I gave a dead giveaway clue.
As for what Nomie said I agree about the keyboard thing. You can never really be yourself completely with the keyboard, no matter how hard you try. You can't use your normal mannerisms, tone of voice etc. not to mention going back and fixing wording cos you didn't like it that way. I've done that many times, and you can't do that in real life.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is quite true - plain words on a screen probably don't convey as much of our personality as we'd like. This makes it vital to pay attention to what we're saying, even more so than when we're speaking to someone face-to-face. And it probably makes it easier for people to mis-interpret us or think we're something other than we are. I always recall my own misake in assuming someone was much younger than they were, based purely on the way they typed their posts. I was amazed to see a photo of them and realise they were actually around my age!

SR was always a lot of fun. I'm glad I fell into that so early in my relationship with the internet. It was so much to let all the madness out with people who understood!

[naelany.livejournal.com]

lol yeah, a decade. I can hardly believe it myself. But yeah, I was 20 when my then boyfriend (Danish, as chance would have it...what is it with the Scandinavians and luring people on the internets ^_~) got me online. I didn't know squat about computers then, other then that he was learning to be a computer technician or something. I'm not sure how to translate the title, nor do I rightly remember it in Danish after all these years lol

[minnn.livejournal.com]

You do a fine job at being Elspeth!

And ;-) truespoken - I'm sure *some* people (regulars) can tell when it's me, as well, no matter how hard I try to sound like...well, someone with no personality :-P Oh well!

I have to always remember not to put "Cheers & Chocca" at the end of an Elspeth post :-P

[frohike.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Somewhere in there, my point actually did get across. =D