The Online Identity Crisis

(My academic instinct is to find sources and dates and all that but the point of these "drafts" is to be freeform in ideas so you get none of that today.)

I talked in my first post about the era when people could just be themselves online, all content put into a single platform without concern. I'm not saying everyone aired their dirty laundry, but people posted their reactions to TV shows and talked about weekend plans next to talk of professional stuff without much issue.

Then came the rise of the personal brand. Profiles needed to be curated. You had a personal account and a public one. Social media became a consideration for work and for college applications. Hobbies that could be "cringe" were hidden away on alternate profiles. Identity became split.

Mind you, I mostly run in particularly nerdy circles of the internet. Not everyone wants their MMO friends to know where they work and vice versa. However, it's not unusual to desire a social media presence for each “identity” to share photos and information with broader communities. Sometimes, this can be as simple as using Discord exclusively for gaming, but not everyone can adhere to that rule. Consequently, multiple profiles might be necessary, multiple email addresses leading to multiple sets of usernames, each with their own specific profile details. One's identity splits into different names and appearances to compartmentalize.

We live in a surveillance era. I recently saw a post (which of course I can no longer find) talking about how the holy grail for companies right now is to connect all data about people into unified profiles. Your digital ghost is being pieced together by those who wish to know what you think and how to influence you.

But I have to wonder... How does this work with those of us with multiple internet identities? I used to joke that ditching one's internet presence and starting over every few years was probably a healthy thing, to keep one's digital history in the past. But how separate are those old usernames from my current self? Sure, certain factors might inevitably link "me" together, such as credit cards or personal photos. But can a person truly be two separate "people" in the realm of digital identities?

Finding those methods of interacting with the World Wide Web that actually make you a unique entity online are going to become increasingly important for one's privacy in the current internet era.