My online identity

                For this blog I have been tasked with analyzing a digital life audit I have done a couple weeks ago. With this audit I took note of my online activity and whether I was presenting my “digital self”, “real self”, or both. This was to help us define whether we had separate identities or if they were integrated more than a digital duelist would admit. To satisfy the expectations of this blog I have to answer three questions:

How much of your activity in the digital world is integrated with your material world?
                As far as how much of my online activity is integrated the material world. I would have to say all of it. I don’t lead a second life defined by my use of the internet. I don’t do any roleplaying online that facilitates the creation of another identity, such as with World of Warcraft, Vampires the Masquerade, or Second Life. When I do play games online, I try to customize my character to be me as much as possible, because I consider the character to be me if I had been in that specific situation, rather than me pretending to be a wholly different person altogether. My Facebook, email, and outlets of communication are representations of me in the material world, rather than depicting an alternate self. Because of this I see no line drawn between my online and material selves.

What aspects of your experience in the digital world are uniquely distinct from the physical world? That is, these activities do not connect, integrate, or supplement your physical "off-line" self.

                I would almost say when I am gaming. Often I game with friends that I know in the material world, so the two still integrate. The digital even influences the material in this case, because if I have a friend who is upset that I beat him in a game or disagreed with him about an outcome, he may avoid me in the material world till he calms down. Sometimes I play with people I don’t know, but I don’t normally pretend to be anybody else when I am. I do have a few email accounts that I created of alternate identities, but really these are just inboxes for all my spam to be diverted to. So I guess those inboxes help keep all the junkmail and scams out of my material world.

What did you learn about yourself and how your digital identity relates or intersects with your off-line self?

I already knew my material and digital selves were integrated. If my life were split into two facets, I would be more inclined to say those distinctions are public and private. What I feel I learned is that I separate my private and public identities online as much as I do offline. What I mean is that when I am on Facebook, I only make positive posts and the only times I use Facebook to complain about anything is with very close friends in a private chat. The same friends I would confide to in the material world if we were face to face. Otherwise my Facebook profile is a great representation of my public self. I don’t make it positive because I want people to believe my life is perfect. It results from when I had hard times I would call my dad for advice and eventually he got mad because I only called when I had problems and he wished I would just call when I had some good news to talk about. I did not call him for a while because I could not find anything good to talk about. By only posting the positives on Facebook, I am forced to find the bright side of my life and it reminds me that overall, things are pretty good. So I guess my point is that just like my material world, my digital world has a public me and a private me. Which one is seen depends on whether or not the communication is private. If it is not private, then I assume everybody will see it and I am more careful about what I do or say.