Do you have an internet persona?

[CoyoteTales]

You made really, really good points about how everyone does seem to self-edit in some capacity, across different contexts. I do think that there are some people who actually wish they could edit themselves more, to be able to read social cues better. Is it that they can't develop the right persona for the situation, because they are "too themselves?"

I'm on the opposite spectrum, where I can overly self-edit and try to fit into situations. Which is why the internet is a fun place to let go of this a bit, through the anonymity is what allows for that. So I guess you could say my internet persona is both more "me" and less "me" at the same time.

Mmmm. Someone who knows the Chameleon dance. It's part of being a natural actor and an empathic sort -- if you can get a read on people, you pick the one or two things that you have in common with them, punch those up a little bit, downgrade the incompatible stuff, and voila, you can be a part of the circle.

I think everyone has the capacity to present themselves as anything they want to be -- it's just harder to sell yourself -as- something in person than it is in cyberspace.

Also, writers have the capability to spin reality with words -- no matter how outlandish the fiction may be. It is the mark of a Really Good Writer if they can make the audience suspend their disbelief and accept their fantasy as a facet of reality -- I believe it's a part of the reason that urban fantasy novels are the 'in' thing right now.

Now imagine an artist/writer double threat. That's the kind of person who can write themselves a personna that has enough solidity to it that they can pass it off as a real person -- no matter that parts of it didn't actually happen.

On the other paw? Some weirdly fantastic stuff does, in fact, happen to some of us. Some folks do win the lottery. Some folks do take trips around the world. Some folks are, in fact, on television. We don't know that it's true, but we don't know that it's false, either.

There's even a party game for it: 'Two truths and a lie...' where you state three things, two of which are true, and one of which is not.

[ ] My first job out of college was one that I aced the interview by showing the interviewer a blank stack of printouts as a writing sample.
[ ] I've been on television, portraying the role of a psychotic killer.
[ ] I've been boating in the Gulf of Mexico and got to visit an oil rig for a class trip.

What we tell people about ourselves is what we pick. It's information editing -- sometimes it's -creative- editing.

Myself? I heavily edit what I show people of myself. I tailor it to the group I'm with -- very, very, few people who I feel are 'mundanes' get to hear about my Coyotekin side. Doubly so if they're religious -- I don't mention that I don't follow their religion at all. And -nobody- knows I'm here unless I met them here to begin with. So to the rest of the world, you here on Lit are edited out.

But don't worry. It's our secret, and you get to see a side of me that they don't see.

-CT.

 

[littlebabyclit]

There's an interesting flip side to this whole "persona" question. It has to do with the fact that it doesn't matter sometimes if we're completely "real" with certain people i.e. as real as we can feel comfortable to be. Have you ever dealt with people who pretty much assign you a persona, based on some highlights they know about your personality which may have stood out to them about you? Or, even more intriguingly, they assign you a persona based on what they'd like to believe about you...something reflective of their own personal beliefs or belief system...despite how facts which unfold about you actually point to the contrary which they'd see if they could take their rose-colored glasses off about you.

What should this process be called...reverse-persona-assignment?

 

[yuna1981]

Also, writers have the capability to spin reality with words -- no matter how outlandish the fiction may be. It is the mark of a Really Good Writer if they can make the audience suspend their disbelief and accept their fantasy as a facet of reality -- I believe it's a part of the reason that urban fantasy novels are the 'in' thing right now.

Hm, that's an interesting point, though I might argue that it's not about spinning reality but spinning a possible reality.

There's even a party game for it: 'Two truths and a lie...' where you state three things, two of which are true, and one of which is not.

[ ] My first job out of college was one that I aced the interview by showing the interviewer a blank stack of printouts as a writing sample.
[ ] I've been on television, portraying the role of a psychotic killer.
[ ] I've been boating in the Gulf of Mexico and got to visit an oil rig for a class trip.

Oh this would be a fun game to play on Lit. I am guessing #3 is true for you.

Have you ever dealt with people who pretty much assign you a persona, based on some highlights they know about your personality which may have stood out to them about you? What should this process be called...reverse-persona-assignment?

Good point, I think this happens all the time. Maybe a "compelled persona" versus a "projected persona"?

 

[Que]

no

I have several.

For some reason though the only ones that are wildly popular are 18 year old bisexual nymphomaniacs,

 

[Kitkat103]

Yes, my persona is playing someone who cares.

 

[sterculius]

On the internet, I'm an Obsessive and Insatiable Cocksucker... In real life, I'm just a cocksucker

 

[CoyoteTales]

Oh this would be a fun game to play on Lit. I am guessing #3 is true for you.
Good point, I think this happens all the time. Maybe a "compelled persona" versus a "projected persona"?

*grins* -Two- of the things are true in there; only one is false.

In regards to the 'assigned personna' thing, it's a part of being human. We seem to obey the whole 'nature abhors a vaccuum', and so when we take our first impressions of someone, anything we aren't given outright, our mind fills in the gaps. For example, people always think I'm younger than I actually am. Or that I'm really intelligent just because I wear glasses. Clever, yes. Booksmart, not so much. Maybe my evil mastermind twin got straight A's in college, but I wasn't even close.

Society and mainstream media trains us into this -- an author or television or movie writer paints us a picture of a character in as few words as possible. Caricatures and stereotypes are imprinted on our consciousness in order to establish an identity without belaboring the exposition of who a character is -- well, he has a cape, wears black, and there are pointy things on his cowl, and he has a bat symbol, so he's Batman... -- and in our quest for identity, we have a whole database of ideas to make someone out to be like.

When we, as individuals, strive to retrain someone to think differently of us than their self-knowledge, that is when a quasi-closed mind rebels. "I keep telling you, I'm not good at this kind of stuff." 'Sure you are. You look like you can do this...' And it is only when reality presents proof otherwise that they begin to believe.

To kinda bring us back to be relevant to the forum at hand; how many of you have heard the notion that big feet and/or big hands equals well-endowed? Where did you first hear it from? And how often do you see that particular trope trotted out on the screen, versus the number of times you actually get to see the evidence of it in the same show or movie?

Think about it. You rarely ever get to see what's inside the person's trousers. But yet we've been trained to accept it as reality. And some of us have thus been taught to ask someone's shoe size....

You have to be secure in your own identity to defend yourself against folks who insist on thinking their reality trumps your own. Sadly, not a lot of us are like that -- they'll just let people think that and wander off, waiting for the day where the person says, 'Oh, damn, you're right. You really aren't what I thought you were.' Hopefully without the added, '...I'm disappointed.'

-CT