In the past couple of months, I've had several new thoughts about my identity online. in some ways, this exercise mirrors one i've undergone for years with my offline self: how to reconcile my various nicknames.
some people never get nicknamed; their given name follows them around, never straying too far so that when it comes time to fill out a form or choose an email address, the identifier simply rolls off the tongue. i live on the other end of the spectrum. only people at work and a few family members still call me by my given name; most others call me "boo" (and still others have developed their own nicknames for me over the years).
in my offline world, i've found ways to navigate these different names. i usually introduce myself with my given name, but it often doesn't take long to reveal that i prefer "boo." online, however, this has grown trickier, making me think that technology isn't necessarily as flexible as we purport. after all, though i could always edit my username, it seems that once i choose one, it is somehow hard-coded into my online representation. but if i have different names in different worlds (e.g. work and not-work), this gets complicated.
for example: if my co-workers don't know me as "boo," do i need to create a given-name doppelganger of online selves to maintain a web presence? a given-name facebook account and twitter profile? (i welcome your comments.)
while some laud the Internet's capability to host our splintered, idiosyncratic selves, i crave more synchronicity; i want fewer email addresses to monitor, less clutter, and a smaller set of information i have to memorize in order to enjoy the Web's majesty.
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2 comments:
I sympathize with your predicament. I face a similar situation, although nowhere near as drastic as yours. My name is 'Drew'; my mother insisted on calling me that, and I think officially naming me 'Andrew' was a mere concession to my father's Catholicism. But really, even my father has always called me Drew. That is my name, and I like it. (I also like Drewboo, as you know, Boo.)
But once I went to college, got a credit card, etc., I've had to get on the 'Andrew' bandwagon. I even caved and made my gmail address 'Andrew.Kukorowski' even though my nickname is 'Drew'.
This bothers me because it gives the impression that 'Andrew' is my name, when in fact, I don't believe it is. I've seriously started contemplating an official name change.
This brings me to my main point. Ed Forchion, aka New Jersey Weedman, attempted to legally change his name to "NewJerseyWeedman.com". The state of NJ refused. Why shouldn't he be able to change his given name to whatever nickname he prefers?
I started this comment like a letter, writing "Boo," and then chuckled at how that placed me into a defined part of your social life.
I am reading Manovich right now, and so I was reminded of a quote of his when reading your post: "A Western artist sees the Internet as a perfect tool to break down hierarchies... In contrast, as a post-communist subject, I cannot but see the Internet as a communal apartment of the Stalin era: no privacy, everybody spies on everybody else, always present are lines for common areas such as the toilet or the kitchen."
There is a paradox in the simultaneous claims that the internet is inherently democratizing and individualizing, and (in its idealized version) connects each of these unique individuals to everyone in the world. When I read your post, with Manovich in mind, I remembered the personal horror I felt the first time I found someone else was using my alias.
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