11.1 Defining Ourselves

All this talk about defining ourselves online makes me feel as though we are increasingly defined by a set of variables and statistics. Not to say that we weren't before, but now it's far more obvious and quantitative. It's just like those programming classes I'm glad I won't have to take again: eyeColor = "GREEN", height = 76, hairColor = "BROWN". Each of these bits of information is categorized and stored away, in many ways bringing the body online through characters and numbers. This makes for a personalized space online with sites that remember our preferences like Amazon.com and can even tell us not only who we're romantically compatible with but how successful the relationship is likely to be across multiple categories.

All of this, however, is determined by the information we provide. Yes, we tailor that information. The information accessible to friends is in many cases also accessible to family and coworkers, as well as potential employers. Broadcasting personal information is typically not wise, and throwing up a few quotes from Shakespeare or saying one of your favorite books is Catcher in the Rye never hurt anyone.

As Boyd indicates, we define ourselves textually online and write ourselves into existence in this online space. When the writing stops, the persona online starts to fade; even information that is only a few weeks old is outdated when many are making their presence known every few hours. Once the information lingers for long enough, even if it is still physically present online, it can become detached from the person who originally constructed the information and eventually lost.

Years ago I frequently updated a page on deviantART and had a MySpace page. The MySpace page was rarely updated and I had more friends on Facebook, so even though the information was present there it drifted into obscurity to the point that I can't remember how to access my account. The information about myself never changed on deviantART, but each new art submission and comment on other artist's work maintained an identity and presence; the most recent post was who I was on that site. Once I stopped posting, people stopped visiting and the identity attached to that account stopped existing some years ago.

Now, I've reached a point where the information communicated online rarely has any synchronization with reality. While I have the option to broadcast my current state of being over Twitter or Facebook, it is more like announcing than expressing, though many friends on Facebook seem inclined to express their political views very visibly on my newsfeed day after day. And maybe that's the new state of things; less concern with what information is presented to others. People are already broadcasting their breakups on Facebook before their significant others know about it, so why not make everything as blatant?