Does having multiple online personalities cloud your perception of your true personality? [Image from Unsplash]
Online identities refer to how users create distinctive characteristics, personalities and signs to author our presence in the Web (Angela Thomas).
People adopt multiple identities simply due to anonymity and control over personal we can made available online, separating private life from professional sphere of our lives. I represent myself very differently in my anonymous (Tumblr) and authentic profiles (Facebook). Having multiple identities teaches me the responsibility in organising aspects of my personalities appropriately in different context (Michael Zimmer, 2010) and tests my ability to truly understanding the audience I am facing in each platform hence exposing my “personalities” accordingly, so as to prevent awkward or uncomfortable situations.
I browse different things & interact differently in the following social media platforms!
Furthermore, fabricating multi-faceted identities give me user freedom to be creative and tacky, nurturing my creativity to go wild (in the similarity of creating characters in novel), allowing us to “figure out their identity and explore what they want to do” (Andrew Lewman). This notion is supported by Christopher Poole, creator of 4Chan, proclaiming that “identity is prismatic” – we always represent ourselves through multiple personae; and this is a mere fact of being human, not to deceive or manipulate.
On the negative side, anonymity ironically (contradicting with my previous statement) reduce responsibility. Misuse of anonymity encourage potential assaulters and bullies who feel safe behind the ‘anonymous’ mask and feel less accountable for consequences of their actions and words. Examples of irresponsibility are shown in screenshots below (BEWARE: offensive language):
[Source: Tumblr, from article ‘Why the Steven Universe Fandom is the Worst Ever‘]
Mark Zuckerberg argued that “having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity”, believing in single public identity to validate authenticity. I beg to differ – we should put on a “show” to different audiences through different identities. This is supported by Goffman, stating how ‘we present our selves to others is aimed toward “impression management”, where we reveal certain aspects of the self and to conceal others, as actors do when performing on stage’.
There is already existing skepticism regarding Internet due to the anonymity it provides -Credibility and reliability of individual, with multifaceted identities, will be questioned in personal circle of friends or even employers seeking out potential employees’ social profiles in order to get a glimpse of their candidates outside the confines of a resume.
In conclusion, it comes down to individual’s responsibility on the contents they posted and how they can filter and manage different personalities to different audiences in each social media platform. If they are able to achieve this, I believe having multiple identities are absolutely fine.
(404 words, excluding references, picture captions, in-text citations)
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References & image:
Angela Thomas, 2007 “Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age” [Accessed at 7th Novemeber 2016]
Michael Zimmer, 2010 “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” [Accessed at 7th November 2016]
Aleks Krotoski, 2012 “Online identity: is authenticity or anonymity more important?” [Accessed at 7th November 2016]
Erving Goffman, 1956 “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” [Accessed at 7th November 2016]
Musings & Thoughts 
Hey Ade,
Great post! I enjoyed reading your blog post as well as how you represent yourself on different social media accounts. But I do have a question, as to employers researching on potential/current employees via their social media. Do you think such actions are ethical? As there have been incidents of current employee posting something undesirable on their personal social media account (Facebook) and be held accountable which lead them to be fired. Do let me know about your thoughts!
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Hello, Zin! Thank you for your kind words. You bring up an interesting point – how ethical such actions depends on how well employers can draw the line in scrutinising potential/current employees.
Potential employees – Employers should give them the benefit of doubt first, by judging them based on their academic success/profile in their CV. In my opinion, I believe LinkedIn is an acceptable screening tool as it is a professional networking profile and applicable to test validity of their academic success. However, looking into their personal social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) to dig out personal information about them may cause discomfort and even invasion of privacy. In my humble opinion, employers should notify employees prior to interview if the hiring conditions include social media reputation, offering employees a chance to clear out any information they would like withhold.
Current employees – Let’s go by the scenarios that the employers and employees are friends in the social media platform. I believe the most ideal approach is employees having the responsibility to withhold posting or sharing offensive posts, being aware of their higher-up’s presence. There should be a universal understanding that offensive, rude, racist, sexists, posts are deemed as inappropriate, and hence it is justifiable for company (especially high-profile company) to fire such employees. As long as there is mutual understanding and responsibilities between 2 parties beforehand and moderation of employers’ analysation of employees’ social media accounts, I believe it can be ethical. However, constant snooping around an individual’s account – that is not ethical.
I hope this clears out your question, thank you for the comment!
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Hi Adelene!
I enjoyed reading your post! Your post mentioned the responsibility of organizing your personalities and testing your understanding of the different audiences in each identity. Indeed, multiple accounts do allow more freedom to express, as the different social media platforms have different functions. Organizing them to appeal to different audiences allows effectiveness in portraying the right image.
I agree with Goffman that we present ourselves in different ways to different people. Authenticity would then always be a question as we all play different roles in our lives. For example, we can be someone’s friend and another’s student.
I agree that it is up to the individual to control the content by managing their personalities or filtering content. However, I also understand that some people are reluctant to have to sort the information when they already have many posts in the account. What do you suggest for these people?
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