Why Having More Than One Online Identity Could Keep You Sane
Even before his latest set of privacy woes, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a different policy that has been fairly controversial. He enforces a rule that only allows real people to use their real names to maintain a single Facebook profile. In other words, no fake profiles, no pseudonyms, and no profiles that are only intended for one audience and not another. The way he puts it: “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”
I take issue with that statement. I simply don’t buy into Zuckerberg’s theory of a singular identity, nor would Erving Goffman, the psychologist who wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
According to Goffman, whenever we contact other people, we attempt to control or guide the impression that others might make of us by changing or fixing his or her setting, appearance, and manner. In other words, we put on a social mask or persona — we naturally present ourselves in a sort of daily theatrical performance. Sometimes we wear them more lightly than in others, but regardless, we all have slightly different personas for different social situations.
I think this is what made the early internet exciting: the freedom from the ordinary identity that used to happen when you’d go online. You could test out different ideas…
