Bridging Your Real-Life and Virtual Identity

The article provided great suggestions about developing real personal connections with people, but it reminded me that I've heard these same suggestions long before the internet came into being. I've heard them in connection to "the person you present yourself as at church on Sunday" and "the person you are during the rest of the week."

I think it's very common for everyone to present themselves in different ways at different times. We tend to adjust our speech, actions, and way of inter-relating based on the group of people we are with at the time, or even based on what we think might be revealed later. I used to keep a journal as a teenager, but even then, I realized that someone other than me might be reading these journals in the future, so I didn't write down things that would be embarrassing to me later.

Even in face-to-face settings, it's hard to know if some is "really" who they present themselves to be.

There are several games based on lying. Mafia, poker, CBS-Survivor, etc. These involve getting people confident in your claims, making deals, and then breaking those deals. People commonly say that lying is ok in these cases because it's part of the game.

I am terrible at those games because I don't see what difference the game makes. I'm not going to lie.

I am terrible at those games because I don't see what difference the game makes. I'm not going to lie.

I don't think I'd be comfortable with games that required explicit lying either. There are plenty of games, however, that simply require hiding information, such as your letter tiles in Scrabble or your cards in Uno. I don't think hiding information is unreasonable, whether it's in a game or real life. Even my close friends don't have to know everything about me.