How Many Multiple Identities Do You Manage Along With Your Avatar?

"[H]umanity," virtual world blogger Lauren Jones recently observed, "has become a multitasking parallel processor." She illustrates that point with this screen capture of her desktop, which must be seen to be believed. "Second Life was open where I was involved in a crazy discussion at Ahern infohub. I had Skype online and was talking on my headset to a family member. I had Facebook open, checking for messages. I was editing a picture to send to a friend by email. I had EVE Online running in the background, which I am currently exploring with a view to an upcoming blog. I had Publisher 2007 open as I did some work ready for next week. I had the BBC website open to check today's news. Away from this screen I had my laptop running as I (sort of) watched a DVD in the background. So at the exact same time, I was a cybernautical explorer, a family member, a social networker, an employee, a space pirate, a blogger and a film fan." However, she notes, "I also find it fascinating that as time goes on, I am more than ever realizing that I am the same person wherever I go." I wonder how generally true that is. In this era where extreme multitasking is possible, how many non-SL identities do you manage at the same time you're in Second Life, and how do they all influence each other?

Comments

[Mitch Wagner]

I am the world's worst multitasker. We had an impromptu iPad launch party at the same time as the announcement Wednesday. The simple act of participating in SL conversation while watching liveblogging almost killed me.

[Fogwoman Gray]

One identity, a couple of names :)

[paypabak writer]

I love Lauren's blog and will be featuring it on Tuesday's Moonletters! All of her articles are so well thought out.

[Galatea Gynoid]

As Walt Whitman once said, "I am large, I contain multitudes." :)

I've never been the same person everywhere I go. Just the opposite, I've always been a very different person at work or at school than with friends, heck, not even necessarily the same person with different groups of friends. Different demeanor, different thoughts and attitudes, even different beliefs (not different professions of belief, but utterly different assessments of truth and plausibility). I don't know why, it's just who I am. Or who we are. ;)

[Lalo Telling]

All of my online activities (blog, email, Twitter, forums, etc.) are all in my "avatar name" -- including my brand new sim in OSGrid. When I'm in SL (or OSG), the viewer's on the wide-screen monitor by itself, and my other screen has the web browser open for the rest, including the "Echofon" Twitter plug-in for Firefox.

[Sered Woollahra]

Funny, my desktop looks similar to that one, every now and then. I also do both SL and Eve Online - and some other worlds such as Twinity as well.

Cheers,
Sered

[Dedric Mauriac]

The blur between avatar and real-life is very strong with me. I'll often post under my avatar name on many blogs and news articles. It often depends on the content of the article, and if I am already logged in as either identity when commenting on blogs. However, writing as either one, I am always me.

[Extropia DaSilva]

>"I also find it fascinating that as time goes on, I am more than ever realizing that I am the same person wherever I go." <

Various experiments have shown that people abandon one personality for another that more benefits the current situation, while at the same time sincerely believing they are giving an honest and neutral description of their 'real' personality.

Professor Philip Zimbardo (oh he of the famous 'Stanford Prison Experiment') once commented, 'human behaviour is much more under the control of situational forces than most of us want to recognize or want to acknowledge'.

So, while Lauren Jones may be sincere in her belief that 'I am the same person wherever I go', that is almost certainly not actually the case.

[Nova Dyszel]

At first, I used sl as an escape, for social experiments and adventures, and was very controlling and a little paranoid about keeping my sl name (let alone my alt) and rl name unconnectable. But life, including slife, changes. Over time my relationships in sl were deeper, more real, and the boundary dropped away. Finally, when I focussed more on sl as an aristic outlet, I gave it up. I made a machinima for my lifelong best friend from a poem of hers, and wanted my rl name on it. It has been a surprise how freeing it feels to stop worrying about keeping the names separate :)

It is a bit daunting though managing so many accounts, places, online, though I love them all: koinup, flickr, FB, youtube, 2 hotmail, 1 work email, etc...

nova dyszel / robin gordon

[Tateru Nino]

Are there not decades of movies and sitcoms about people juggling multiple identities (personal, professional, family et al)?

It was a common theme in The Honeymooners and The Flintstones, back in the day.

[Vax Sirnah]

Here's my SL profile text:
"People are multi-dimensional; when you look at them, you only see the side facing you. When they turn, you see a different shape. Here, I have many different shapes, different "me"s. My form and identity is protean. But they are all just me, seen from different angles. I am large - I contain multitudes."

I've come to see that I have several different 'presentations', usually with their own names. But they are all me. Some people escape into virtual worlds. I prefer to extend into virtual worlds. I find the concept of 'augmented identity' rings very true for me.

So I am often in SL, on blogs, on several IMs, on Twitter, Facebook and Wave all at once. But I maintain a thread of self through all of that. I tried separating those lives, but that became very self-destructive for me. So I decided that I had to be one person with many expressions. I guess you could say each avatar is a sort of API to me built for that environment :)

And while I may not bring up each connection, I don't hide them. I found that to be just as self-destructive for me.

Second Life seems based off of the premise of that separation, the explicit abyss between RL and SL. For some people that works, but not me.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I am an accomplished single-tasker. I focus on one thing at a time. The only time I have multiple apps open is if I'm experiencing significant lag or downtime in one.

In general, my online personas are like a tool kit. Some are multipurpose, some are single-use, and since I never lend them out, there's no need to engrave my name on any of them.

I have six avatars in Second Life, a multitude of MMO personas, and two distinct message board identities that I employ on a regluar basis. Of these, I think only two are publicly linked, and these very loosely.

But I was trained in theater and I can change characters like other people change socks.

[Mitch Wagner]

In first life, we control how much information about ourselves we give to other people If you strike up a conversation with someone at the supermarket, they can't find out what your job is, look at embarrassing pictures taken of you while you were drunk, or learn about your political views, unless you choose to disclose that information. Which we do, over time, and selectively, to people we care about and trust. Information becomes a token of intimacy, like a hug.

On the flat Internet, that's not true. Google anyone who's active on the Internet, and you can find out a lot.

In this way, Second Life is more like 1st life than the flat Internet is. In Second Life, you have control over your 1st life identity, and information about it, and you can choose whom to give it to.