Reflection # 12

What: Developing an Online Personality

So What: When interacting with people online, it is easy, and even tempting, to present oneself in a manner that is slightly different than how someone would encounter you in person. I think most people have a tendency to do this at some level, although not always to an extreme measure. For example, I think just about everybody participates in this one: Posting facebook pictures. People love to put pictures of themselves doing interesting activities or in intruiging places. People also love to put ONLY the good pictures of themselves online. Why do we do this? Because we want to put our best selves forward and show people that we are beautiful and interesting people. Some people even go to extremes and create completely different alternative egos. Is all of this wrong? Or are some things okay to do in some situations but not others? Or should people be free to do whatever they want? This video is a funny song by Brad Paisley that addresses this topic, and even though it is country (for all you haters) it is a funny presentation on this real issue. ***There might be some things that might be offensive to some, a little bit of language, and some content that is relevant to the online alter-ego dilemma, but i don't think it's enough to take away from the message, so if you want to check it out click the youtube link below***:

READ ***ABOVE*** BEFORE CLICKING LINK!
Online by Brad Paisley

Now What: This concept is important for each person to consider because we all interact with people or present oursevles in the online community. It's important to figure out morally about how far we are willing to let our creativity and imagination affect our online personalities, and when it is important to present ourselves as accurately and truthfully to our actual personalities as possible.