Upon the birth of my blog, I established right out of the gates that I would encounter some problems. One of them being:
How do I assume my blog identity?
For starters, I have to be evaluated on this by a supervising professor. So do I present myself as Academic-Professional-Sam? Or do I assume to be my “normal” self as a cynical-pessimist-about-everything-Sam? And here I present the infamous rhetorical question: What IS normal?…because believe me, I am far from it (come to think of it, we all are far from it).
Ultimately, I decided that although a part of me should probably remain professional since this is tied to school and academia, I opted to go in the direction of being my usual self…to the best that I can. In order for me to express all that I wonder and question about social media and my research, I will have to be frank and as open as I can be (albeit hidden behind a computer screen as a faceless entity…Note to self: maybe a self-picture to add?). Having a blog as part of my evaluation is a bit of an unorthodox method in terms of course work, but it ironically fits into the scheme of things, and most likely is one of the very few (if at all) school-related times that I don’t have to speak and present myself in my best professional voice.
Annnnnd, return to my different identities and who I am. As I reflected and weighed my options on how to present my blog self, it dawned on me: why do I have and assume many identities? I have many disguises and faces: daughter, student, part-time worker, girl-friend, and friend Sam, to name a few. But even something like friend Sam has subcategories: close friends (for the mellow-whatever-rolls Sam), acquaintances (some formality required), cheerleading friends (the party-crazed-loud-everyone-look-at-me), school friends (let’s get down to business and study). All these are many identities I assume, and which I ask you to question: how many identities do you hold?
I pose this question because in all my identities, they are all ME. But, while they are all true forms of me, they are variations of how much I hold back or dish out of myself. I try, to uphold my end of the bargain of being a person, to be the most authentic and genuine self no matter what variation of my identity you come across. Yet, with social media and the notion of branding and marketing yourself, how does this affect one’s identity? Like deciding my blog self, which part of me do I largely portray online? This got me thinking about how much of our identities are tied into our online portrayal: do we base it on our actual real life self, or do we overcompensate our best selves online and then hope that everyone who sees us in real life is tricked by our online identity?
Take my blog identity however you want to, but I pray that I am not marked and graded on my grammar and formalities…cuz this blog ain’t have none of that! Move over MLA, APA and Chicago format. The hell with punctuations and grammar. I’m embracing internet speak. I CAN haz cake and eat it too.
Sam 2, Computer 0
samvscomputer 