The Projection of False Identities onto Internet Friends.

Have you ever met someone online, who you've never met in real-life?

For some of you, the answer is no. But if you're the kind of person that managed to find this blog, then the chances are that you have at least one online friend. But how much do you really know them?

Talking online every day for a month can make you feel that you know them, like you know them better than anyone else possibly could. But of course, you know that they know barely anything about you. In fact at some point you've probably discussed the dangers of online friendships, how either of you could be some wierdo that we hear so much about in the media. But you know you aren't (at least, I would hope so).

A brief stint of online chat with somoene gives us a false impression, one that is very often completely different from the real-life person. I know, for example, that I am much more confident, much more talkative online than I am in real-life. I'm more risqué over email than I might be face-to-face. I'm much shyer in person than I am over IM. It stands to reason that they are different too. Perhaps not all of them. Possibly I'm the only one. But I doubt it...


So it would seem that maybe you don't know them as much as you thought you did. We all know that knowing a person for a month isn't really knowing them. But then, who is this person that you feel you know? They must be a real person, surely? Aren't we too old for imaginary friends? But it seems that the answer to that question is no.

We may require prompting, a basis upon which to create a personality, but once we have our ideas of what the person is like, they are there to stay for some time. Real or not. Many of us have imaginary friends and don't realise it. Perhaps it's because they talk back, or because you know that somewhere there exists the person you think you know. But there is no true substitute for real-life social interaction, and these online personalities can be no more representative than the avatars that adorn many a forum across the web.

But where do these personalities come from? Can our brain really imagine so many different people and keep them seperate? It sounds perhaps like a third-person version of split personalities. Now I'm not a psychologist, but I have my opinions. I do believe that our brain could do that, but I also believe that it has a vast amount of help. In this world of data-transfer, there are so many stimuli for our minds to process, particularly celebrity gossip and television shows.

The image that we get of celebrities and TV characters are false, created identities. But whether or not we like it, they are a part of our lives. Everywhere we go we see Katy Perry on the front of a magazine, or hear Taylor Swift on the radio. And we become Attached. Just like out imaginary friends, we believe we know these people. Because as a culture we are led to believe that. Would soaps last so long if we didn't identify with the characters? Would international shows such as Grey's Anatomy or Chuck be so popular if we didn't want to know people like that?

And that brings me to my point. Online "friends" are the perfect outlet to project these celebrity personalities onto. I've seen it happen to myself, and to others. We take what we've been fed by the media, and we try to involve it in our life. There used to be other ways we did that, fashion trends for example, and we still do things the old ways. But with the advent of social networking, there comes with it a whole new way to involve ourselves in celebrity culture, at the expense of what could be strong and long-lasting relationships.

I expect that this article will make little difference to modern society, but if you find yourself chatting to someone online for the first few times, remember this. just acknowledging the idea can be enough to remove the problem. Look out for it, and it won't bother you. I can't change the world in my first real blog post, but I can plead, beg you to listen to the other person, and not the false culture created for the benefit of the famous.

The Written Assassin