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One self is not enough

jessepollak.me

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Re: One self is not enough

#2

Post by lukasb »

I brought this up with a couple Facebook PMs last week; they seemed nonplussed. One of them brought up the fact that the average user has fewer than 150 friends; he gently suggested that I was an edge case.

I disagree, even someone with 10 friends will show one face to five and another face to the other five (if those five are a separate group.)

Zuckerberg's comments about "integrity" suppose that we have an atomic identity that we sometimes modify out of weakness of character. Nonsense. Our identities emerge out of interactions (the linked essay makes the same point without sounding like an undergrad who just read some critical theory.)

The unfortunate thing for Facebook (and Google+) is that no one has made a successful feature set around different friend groups in the same service. Facebook might have to resign itself to being people's public face.

Re: One self is not enough

#3

Post by jessepollak »

lukasb wrote: post #2

I brought this up with a couple Facebook PMs last week; they seemed nonplussed. One of them brought up the fact that the average user has fewer than 150 friends; he gently suggested that I was an edge case. I disagree, even someone with 10 friends will show one face to five and another face to the other five (if those five are a separate group.) Zuckerberg's comments about "integrity" suppose that we have an atomic i…

I don't know if Facebook will be people's public faces. At least for me, it's a much more private thing than Twitter and I'm much more comfortable posting personal content on it. Is that not the same for you?

Also, I think Google tried to tackle this issue with Google Plus, but they were just too late to the game. Maybe if they'd come earlier, it really could have been a successful solution to this problem.

Re: One self is not enough

#4

Post by ken »

All of the (moderately) famous people I know on Facebook have (at least) two Facebook accounts: their public / fan identity, and their private / friend identity. I think it's officially against the rules, but even when they obviously use the same name, and presumably log in from the same IP address, Facebook doesn't seem to care.

Re: One self is not enough

#5

Post by citricsquid »

I think the main problem with using Facebook comments is not so much that they assume you have one identity, it's that they don't allow you to isolate things between websites.

I comment on a lot of websites, the internet is my home, I don't mind people reading my comments on another website, if my parents saw my hackernews comments it wouldn't be of concern to me, however if all my hackernews comments were pushed to my Facebook feed and every friend on Facebook saw every comment I leave that would be a problem because it means I would have to consider them as an audience too when commenting.

Context is important, most people on Hackernews have the same background (technology) and will approach the comments others write in a similar frame of mind, however my parents would understand what I say in a different way and it would mean I'd have to consider the meaning of my comments to everyone, it would change the dynamic. I think it's more about context than it is "personality" or having multiple personalities. In some ways they're the same thing though.

Re: One self is not enough

#6

Post by FoxenFleet »

Isn't this was Google+ "Circles" was supposed to solve? It seems even if you did have just one permanent online identity, you could choose who would see what. Which it seems would work for the author. On the other hand, for public forums and anything else that would come up in a Google search would be tied to your name as well (which I think is what Moot was getting at). It seems in the end, most people would avoid being their "true" selves, even if they're passionate about the topic of a site or forum.

I'm one who likes to remain fairly private, and wouldn't want many of my Facebook friends to even know about a blog I may have, the type of Youtube videos I watch, or know of my Reddit account. Maybe I'm just old fashioned or self conscious, but I try to limit what people know about me.

Re: One self is not enough

#7

Post by scott_meade »

One online self per service is enough. I can't recall a recent situation where I felt I was acting differently in public depending on who was around. Certainly not differently enough that when I'm sitting at my computer I'm going to try to recall which persona I want to wear at which time. Perhaps I don't get out enough.
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