Thursday 5 August 2010

The Online Persona

A few days back a close friend of mine told me that if she ever met me online she wouldn't have been able to recognize me. That got me thinking, how different are we really from our online persona. I know I can be a little more candid online than I am offline. However when I look back at all the friends I made online I wonder how it would be like if I met really met them face to face. Maybe they are a little different too in the real world. A little more reserved, a little more wary, a little more polite. Maybe I don't know them at all, just the way they don't know the real me.
A few months back Microsoft launched a new phone called Kin and as part of the promotion of the phone they had a teenager travel across the country meeting her online friends, people she had never met. Maybe one day if I have enough money and time I shall do the same. Travel the globe meeting the "friends" I have never met before. Maybe the smartest guy I have come across won't be so smart after all, maybe the outspoken girl who never thinks before speaking her mind will be a little more reserved than she comes across. Maybe they are all different from their online persona, just like me. Maybe online we all are a little more the person we would like to be or maybe we are the person we have hidden under good manners and social norms. Maybe it's just the rebel in us screaming to come out. And for a little while we let that person loose.