ALC 201: Assignment 1
Kris Creed 212364156
Hi, let me tell you a little about.me.
I use Facebook to connect socially with friends and lady-friends. I use two Twitter accounts to advertise my blogs and website. I use my blogs to write about pop culture in a semi-serious way. On reddit.com I post anonymously, this gives me the ability to say what I would normally be afraid to say without any negative repercussions from my peers. I use each different medium to project my self. On Facebook I'll try and rile up my friends, or people on public discussions. On Twitter I am strictly business and maybe a little isolated. My website is my podium, I'll stand atop it and spout my beliefs as if they are the only beliefs to exist. The question I am asking, is who am I? Am I Facebook, Twitter, my website, or am I all of them?
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| I'm being pulled in every direction except South-East. Image made at http://www.easel.ly/ |
Above I have shown a Venn diagram on how I depict myself online. I have tried my hardest to keep Facebook separate from the rest of my online personas. Twitter is my go-to for advertising everything I do with my writing and shameless self-promotion. Each circle's size represents their reach. My website persona is interwoven with my Twitters, Soundcloud & About.Me because I am trying to make a brand. 'With the imperative of branding, however, comes the necessity of managing the brand by managing online reputation,' (Smith & Watson, 2014 p79). My Facebook is separate and set to private (temporarily set to public) so that I can socialise with people I know in real life, I can shoot the bull and not worry about how I am making my brand look.
So if I am all of these selves, does that make me schizophrenic?
Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder with a broad range of symptoms and a variable course. It typically afflicts younger individuals, often leading to lifelong disability. The most dramatic aspect of this disease is the periodic episodes of psychotic symptoms (e.g., auditory hallucinations, paranoid delusions) which at times require emergent interventions to protect the individual and others.
(Goldman, Janicak, Marder & Tandon, 2014 p3)That sounds pretty serious. I am a younger individual, but it doesn't feel like a lifelong disability. If anything it feels like a superpower. I also don't suffer from psychotic symptoms, at least not more than the usual person. Maybe schizophrenia is the wrong disease. Maybe I suffer from split personalities.
The commonest misunderstanding is that the terms multiple personality disorder means that a patient has a ‘split personality’. The ‘split’ relates to a divide from perceived reality rather than what is commonly interpreted to mean a split in actual personality. This is rooted in the literal interpretation of the word multiple personality disorder—devised before a clear understanding or differentiation of the term psychosis was determined.
(Hayes, 2014 p33)
I'm not so sure that I suffer from psychosis. Hayes also mentions that 1% of people can suffer from multiple personality disorder (Hayes, 2014 p33). I don't think I'm in the 1% of people creating multiple identities online. Medical science has failed me, like it has many others. Another theory could be that each persona is not an entire identity, but a smaller piece of the puzzle.
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| The Patriot |
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| The scoundrel |
Literary writer, Jorge Luis Borges, wrote about identity in the 1960's. He wrote an essay titled Borges and I, in it he played with the idea that the writer and the person were completely different people. He finished it off with 'I do not know which of us has written this page' (Borges, 1964 p283). Through being a writer Borges was an early adopter of the online self. He understood the disconnect between the self he was publishing to the world and the self that he saw himself as. 'The production of a self through representation is a more complex affair than a conscious performance as commonly argued in new media studies' (Poletti & Rak, 2014 p5). Borges and I (Me and Borges, not the essay referenced) can both relate with Poletti and Rak's claim. We aren't necessarily creating new personas to present, we are presenting different aspects of ourselves, even when we try to project a false self a bit of our true self will shine through.
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| Follow me @KrisCreedYo |
I'll admit that my Twitter is my advertising station. I only use it to scam traffic my way. But even then a lot of my self comes through in my advertising. Even though I was hyping myself up, (something I was new to at the time) my interests and personality came through.
'If we are the sum total of our data, and if our data is not only indicative of a self but also symbolic of what we possess, then our existence becomes precarious' (Poletti & Rak, 2014 p11). I think Poletti and Rak have hit the nail on the head. Our online selves are part of us. What we put online is our data, if you can manage to put it all together you still won't be able to have a complete profile. Even with every piece of ourselves laid bare, you will still be missing one part, 'human beings are worth cherishing because of their rich, distinctive, individual natures' (Lanier in Gauntlett, 2013). When you have all the profiles, all the handles, all the online avatars of a person reigned in and made complete, that's when you have your true self. These social websites are pieces of the puzzle, but they don't demonstrate the individual natures of a human being.
To sum it up, we aren't all suffering from a mental illness. We, as humans, have adapted. 'In the expanding array of virtual environments, identities become increasingly manipulable' (Smith & Watson, 2014 p82). We have figured out how to make the most out of a situation. '(W)e can't allow our very selves to be reduced to a template' (Gauntlett, 2013 p196). If we were only using one social media site, we may very well be able to mold ourselves into a template, but Web 2.0 means that if you were only using one networking site, you are missing out on a lot.
Sources
Borges, L 1964, 'Borges and I' in Labyrinths, Penguin, London
Gauntlett, David 2013, Making is Connecting, e-book, accessed 5 August 2015, <http://deakin.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=1184117>.
Goldman, M, Janicak, P, Marder, S, & Tandon, R 2014, Schizophrenia : Recent Advances In Diagnosis And Treatment, n.p.: New York : Springer, [2014], DEAKIN UNIV LIBRARY's Catalog, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 August 2015.
Hayes, C 2014, 'Multiple personality disorder: an introduction for HCAs', British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 29-33.
Poletti, A and Rak, J 2014, ‘Introduction: digital dialogues’, in Poletti, A and Rak, J, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 3-11.
Smith, S and Watson, J 2014, ‘Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online SelfPresentation’, in Poletti, A and Rak, J, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 70-95
