You, with the Face...

Hey, you with the face and the hair.
That's right, you.
Since I obnoxiously post this on facebook, there's a good chance I know what you look like. I make it a habit to have at least one in person conversation with people before friending them on facebook. But, according to my statistics, I also have an audience in Germany and the UK (Alex Day, if you are reading this blog, my life is now complete). I don't know anyone from Germany. So there is also a portion of my audience whose appearance I know nothing about.

So that's a thing.

So. Being a person who blogs about issues, I thought I'd address the situation. Why? Because I said so. Also, it's BEDIF month.

Because I have no life
Even when I have tons of homework to ignore
During which I want to pull my hair out
If you understand
Frickin' read the blog, so you too can bemoan the existence of stressful lives.

So that was mighty unnecessary. Let's move on, shall we?

Maria was talking about, how at work, she sends invites and important mail to the same people. She's practically memorized their names and addresses, but she's never seen them in real life. Now, this is purely on a business level; it's not like she's digging into their personal lives. But it got me thinking. We're caught in a generation where we can hide behind the anonymity of our computers, and present a persona, rather than a person to the world. We make "internet" friends, who we still separate from our "real life" friends, but the distinction seems to be fading fast. It's cleaner to categorize ourselves online and to fit in, to be cooler somehow. As John Green says, it's the 21st century version of summer camp. Take Charlieissocoollike for example (two Nerdfighter references in one blog? The world will explode with awesomeness!). Charlie McDonnell keeps a youtube channel in which he presents himself as gregarious and outgoing. But, outside the internet, he is really quite shy.

There's nothing inherently wrong with introversion (seeing as I am a total introvert), and there's nothing wrong with playing dress up for a while. But the purpose of vlogging seems to be to share your life with an audience...to be an internet friend, so to speak. I haven't necessarily felt lied to by Charlie because he's informed us that his internet persona differs from his regular personality, but to some degree, we all change our personalities on the internet. Is this a freeing thing? Or is it lying? I meet people online and I think "oh, if they just lived here, we could be the best of friends." But frankly, I don't know them as whole people; the internet serves a slice of one's life, but it doesn't give the whole entré. There's no disclaimer that says "this is a work of fiction; I'm not really this outgoing at home." The personalities I think I'd be besties with online are probably roaming around State College, but I'm just too shy to go out, meet them, and say anything more than "I have a name. And it is...................".

I'd probably be just as socially anxious sans internet, so this online persona is a lovely addition to my normally quiet life. I've met many Nerdfighters that I'd probably never talk to if I just saw them across the street. I'm involved in huge conversations on Youtube videos. Through the internet, I feel more connected. Even through watching Danisnotonfire, Nerimon, Jenna Marbles, and other vloggers I've never met, I feel involved in a large clique of nerds and people who appreciate sexual Wednesday. It's a decent feeling.

Just to note, I do have friends in the outside world. And we have lovely adventures.

But a part of me wonders, if I was forced to enter a world outside of avatars and blogs, would I meet those same personalities I click with online? Or would I continue to shy away from the outside world? I feel like social media benefits me more than it hinders me. Charlie McDonnell claimed the entirety of his confidence to come from YouTube. Then again, he could've found his confidence in other ways. Who knows? We live in the world we live in.

Sometimes, however, these online personas can be dangerous, and more than just suggestions of extroversion. I'm not going to lecture you about online sexual predators because we all got that spiel in middle school, but sometimes, before it happens to us, we can be all "yeah, yeah, don't be stupid online, I got it." But I do have a personal anecdote, so I wish to present the "Kira's stupid adolescent moments" portion of the post:

When I was twelve years old, I was a bit of rebel. Or, at least, I thought I was. My parents weren't fond of online chat rooms, but I was all desperate to meet people that weren't in my "sucky home town" as I so affectionately called it at the time. Most of the chat rooms were boring and went too fast for me to type anything. Mainly I just read people's arguments about god-knows-what during That's So Raven commercials (I was a cool kid). One day, however, someone took an interest in befriending "glittergirl" (me), and invited me to a private chat. I was ecstatic to have made a friend. We talked for a while, and all this time I was convinced that this friend was a girl. This person didn't hide his gender, but once he informed me he was a male, he started asking me strange questions and guessing my age (right on target, too). Luckily, my inner "this is creepy" senses tingled properly at age twelve, and I stopped the shinanigans before shit went down.

But still. The internet, used impulsively, can be a scary place.
Alternative moral of the story: Please, for the love of all things coffee, do not make your username "glittergirl." Ever. 


How do you feel the internet world helps/hinders your life?

Namaste.