I like the thought that awareness of the persona might allow transcendance of the ego.

Makes me think about the question of mind-body awareness; sense of self is where it is projected, not just in the head. This is when movies and games work well – an ECG shows audience reacting as if the experience were real and as if the things afflicting the protagonist on screen afflicted them. In this sense a movie puppeteers the audience.

If awareness can be projected like that, a similarly invested avatar like our twitter personality or facebook presence might affect us similarly; things that happen to those avatars might effectively happen to us, and so the puppeteering you’re wondering about might happen at a much deeper level than we might suppose at first.

A big difference between puppeteered by an onscreen persona and being puppeteered by our online identities is that we can puppeteer our personas back; the evolution of one can feed into the other.

Our personas may also have real world agency. For example, I may ask you to online to do something for me, and many hours later you might come across my note and respond. Unlike a letter or an email, I suspect we project the existence of a person behind an online persona; particularly on realtime systems like Twitter. You might imagine that the other person could be on line, watching for your response.

That elevates my avatar to something almost like a quasi-being, since you might ascribe my potential awareness to my avatar whether I am there or not (since from your perspective I might possibly be at the controls of the avatar).

Software slightly more sophisticated than Twitter that might imbue avatars with independent action, are a conceivable and possibly revolutionary next step in social software. Surrogate player-bots found in MMOs already fill in for players while their humans are away from the game.

If our online egos are able to act on our behalf, enjoy a quasi-awareness, can be perceived as us, and can share their awareness with us from time to time, what might we become?

Finally pulled your blog posts out of my `To Read’ file and have enjoyed the topics you’re covering. They’re so pertinent to my life right now. Having cofounded a company that’s built a social network application and concurrently launching my blog for Women Entrepreneurs I find the last point resonates deeply – how not to become a slave.

The comments above are all fascinating insights to how people are dealing with the online vs offline world. I believe, like you that I’ve learned a ton about myself and other people with these extensions to my real life and I wouldn’t give this up for the world.

I’ve spent the last year inadvertently testing out what I’m comfortable with displaying, sharing and disclosing and battling with the private vs public face of my online personality.

Whilst I think everything I do online reflects who I am for those who have not yet met me in person, that’s what I think and I’ve been proven wrong by people who have pulled me up on the way I’ve written something that I’ve intended in a way that I didn’t.

One thing for sure is the social media/ social networking world is not going away anywhere fast and I believe the worlds are merging in many respects and it’s up to each individual to figure out where they want to fit into that, how to brand themselves, what to become engaged in and what to avoid. And more importantly how to really disconnect from time to time to remain present in our everyday lives.

Thanks for the thought provoking content

Natalie

In particular, I felt surprised to hear that many people assert that their online identity accurately reflects their Self. My first response to this claim sees it as a statement on their lack of critical thought regarding the nature of identity itself. Or, simply an unthinking exaggeration.
To believe that their facebook profile could deeply represent their self indicates a complete identification with a single, social persona. Perhaps they make an even stronger statement: I am a completely consistent individual, about whom everything can be manifestly expressed. For these individuals, I don’t believe that the creation of identities through social media ties the knots of limited self; it may help tighten the rope as they invest more attention into the creation of self-defining assertions. I’ve met many more individuals who have calcified their access to the imaginal so deeply among those who do not use social media; of course this may very well arise from selection bias.
So far, this comment has focused on individuals who have already developed strong social personas. What impact has social media had upon youth going through the transition into public individuals? Do these tools the difficulty of transition to multi-self/Self awareness? Intuitively, I would say they ease this transition in at least two ways. First, by allowing many more degrees of freedom in the creation of identity. Previously, geography and communication limitations provided for a much smaller variation in identity from the indigenous surroundings. Another potential benefit, comes from insight into the constructed aspects of identity. Access to individuals practiced at online manipulation of identity presents a second, huge net gain. Not only the individuals, who can aid in the transition, the internet provides a goldmine archiving the development of these skills.

Rather than see the virtual and actual identities as tending to pull us in different ways, I think investments in each realm increasingly will be mutually reinforcing.

Augmented reality apps on our mobiles will soon enable sharing – if people in face to face encounters so choose – some or all of the other’s online persona. This may help people better sense the “whole person” of the other, as per daemons in the Golden Compass. Out of this, in many cases, it is likely that rapport, trust and co-creation may grow.

opportunities for

Best,

Mark
@openworld

The question about identity, whether it’s a physical or a virtual, is just as old as the human being. “Who am I, cogito ergo sum and all that philosophical wannabe’isme”.
In my opinion we wouldn’t find anything useful, if we’re going continue to discuss identity on a dualistic level (physical & virtual); instead let us assume that the identity we have actually is the sum of our action and perceptions –just like Mitch Lieberman mention earlier. But don’t be afraid to be hung up on your identity either. Your identity can just as easy be a changing one as it can be a never changing rock.
About the question if we’re becoming our own puppetmasters? Hopefully! The digital universe have giving us an immense possibility to be the one we want to be. Before the world wide net ones identity was heavily influenced by the local society –now that has change! Instead our identity can now be formed globally –and for me; that is a more holistic human being. So thank you my online world for the opportunity to could express oneself –it only makes my identity on the street stronger –and a hell of a lot smarter

Best!
Mikkel B

Other than in Linkedin, I have not consciously delved into the differences between my online persona and the real me. Partly because I did not start out with a certain online persona in mind – my initial forays into the online/social world was more from my desire to interact with smart folks with diverse ideas that provided great fodder for thought and reflection.

Couple of thoughts –

* Agree with you that our personalities are manufactured to an extent. Sometimes I think that even the most “authentic” of persons are playing a charade of being authentic — like someone playing the role of a perfect interviewee to get a job.

* I agree there is nothing wrong with playing around/experimenting with your online personas — as long as one is not obsessive about it. Like Zen and the art of reflection, it is more fun to reflect on how the real you and the online you are percieved by your friends and acquaintances and what is that you are doing (or not doing) in one but in the other — and learn from it (almost like the online persona being a prototype of what you want to be — in a good way. Not talking about any fetishes or fanatics).

* No matter how much the technology advances, I don’t think my online persona will ever capture the true me (unless I become a droid). We are humans after all with an electrical & chemical machine inside us (the brain) – and how we behave the next instant is not something that can be modeled. The online persona on the other hand is fairly static — unless you consciously change it.

* Your real world persona should never be subsumed by your online persona – in which case, you are headed towards a hard fall as reality hits you at some point in life. As a corollary – Neither should your online persona stray too far from your real world persona – it will not be sustainable.

Enjoyed the post.

Regards,
Ned

that’s what i’m getting at too. let’s channel our energy into what we can create together, and not focus on inflating ourselves.