Avatar Users Saw the "Real You Online" Catastrophe Coming Years Ago

Good Medium post by M.G. Siegler, formerly a tech journalist and now a partner at Google Ventures, who is now declaring the "The End of the 'Real You' Online:

In the earlier days of social networking, we were optimistic that these services were going to give us the opportunity to connect with more people. And to convey our “true” selves to more people than we could possibly ever meet in real life. And this was supposed to be a good thing. Certainly, this was the ideal of Facebook... My mindset about these networks these days is almost the opposite. In no way should you share the “real” you in these places.

... I wonder if it wouldn’t be better if these networks asked you to create a persona of sorts when you signed up. Maybe it’s some subset of you based on particular interests. Or maybe it’s a whole new persona, more akin to what we used to do in the “old” days of the internet, when screennames/handles were the norm. But right now, the inclination when you sign up for these networks is to “be yourself”, which, again, I now believe is a mistake.

This is quite an observation, coming as it does from the very epicenter of the Silicon Valley zeitgeist. And M.G.'s right. The striking thing to me is that once again, it was Second Life users who first sounded the warning against the encroachment of the "Real You Online" model. Facebook started deleting the Facebook accounts of SL avatars in 2009, to the point where SL developer Linden Lab had to explain in 2011 to its userbase how to use Facebook through their avatar without being banned. The avatar protests and angry comments were loud -- and at the time, seemed to me a bit unbalanced:

Even the deletion of Facebook profiles is not sufficient for the Lab to call it quits with the worlds greatest data mining company. No, we can always create a 'page' instead of a profile... -- Tish' Coronet

There are plenty of good reasons for individuals to avoid Facebook. It continues to prove itself a dangerously sleazy company on a ongoing basis, and the service itself is incredibly creepy... It doesn't matter how badly Facebook treats Second Life users. Zuck could literally spit in [the Linden Lab CEO's] face and SL would still need that FB "Like" bug on the site, and still need to pander to the masses of FB users for new sign-ups. There is no currently viable alternative.... -- Qie Niangao 

Privacy is mostly an illusion on the internet, but that does not mean we should go as far as *help* everyone invade it in every possible way. And given Facebook's disastrous history with privacy at all, I just can't see any advantage to linking my RL and SL identity there, just to help them spam me with more unwanted advertising. -- Allen Kerensky 

And now looking back at these comments 7 years later, the angry avatars were right to be worried about Facebook and its drive to template everyone into its highly restricted version of what constitutes a "real" identity. They saw the potential downsides, where like M.G., I mostly saw the positives. Part of this stemmed from the blinders of male privilege, the freedom from online stalking that many (if not most) women face. And the Second Life user base, technically savvy and generally older, with more experience than most in avoiding the dark side of a life lived online, sounded the alarm. One wonders how different current events would be, if Facebook had listened to them, and allowed pseudonymous accounts. Maybe the company would not be the advertising juggernaut it is now. But then again, maybe it would also not be a conduit for data mining by a hostile foreign power eager to use Facebook data to hyper-target the US electorate before a major election.  

And now that the "Real You Online" model is dead, or dying, I wonder if we'll finally return to the persona/avatar model.

Comments

[Clara Seller]

What's done is done. Unfortunately, I don't feel like anything has been learned from this experience if we really think that " data mining by a hostile foreign power" spending a few thousand dollars to influence our button pushing every 4 years is a real threat.

Nope, I personally think it's that "protective" pink blanket of lies that we are wrapped in from cradle to grave that's doing the real damage. We can't see who we are, what we're really doing, where we came from, or where we're going. That smokescreen was laid down by friendly fire.

We all know that another trap is already waiting for us down the road and it wasn't placed there by some boogeyman. We'll sashay right into it with our most trusted handlers greeting us at the door.

[Tizzy Canucci]

The 'real' identity matters to Facebook - their whole business model depends on getting the cleanest possible data to sell advertising on the back of. That's why they will never let you opt out, let alone adopt another identity. It's pure commercial interest, and it's been very successful. For them.

[Vince Medlock]

Good points. Just one of many reasons that I don't really use FB anymore. Given a choice, I'd delete my account altogether. Instead, I sandbox it as much as possible, lie to FB wherever I can, and generally try to mess with their algorithms.

"Real You" needs to die as quickly as possible.