My Online Persona

My facebook persona combines all the subcultures that I am a part of into one person.

It is nearly impossible to always be the exact same person with every group of people that you interact with: family, close personal friends, coworkers, classmates, and people that you only know by association. Facebook allows all of these personas to mix together and for people from each subculture that I am a part of to see who I am outside of the context in which they know me.

According to Facebook, I have 521 “friends.”  I do not closely know all of them, obviously. Within these 521 people there are probably a dozen different subcultures. My immediate and extended family are included, friends from church, friends from college, friends from high school, coworkers from the past and present, classmates, sorority sisters, and the list could go on  and on. Through Facebook, I am able to address and associate myself with each group. This is especially obvious in status updates, which are available to all of my “friends.” In one status I may comment about the ridiculous customer that was encountered at work, or the incredible amount of homework due for a class. I might comment on a recent mission trip, or the epic night out that I just experienced with some of my closest friends. Generally, each status update elicits a response from the group of people that are associated with the content, allowing friends from other groups to observe the types of interactions that I participate in when I am outside the culture through which they know me most directly.

 I am also able to share my unique interactions with each subculture through photos. I have albums dedicated to family trips, nights out with friends, Gator football games, sorority functions and mission trips. Within these albums it is easy to see the differences and similarities with which I conduct myself in different groups. I also do not believe that behaving differently in different groups is hypocritical, and I think that displaying these different behaviors on Facebook help to make that true. It is simply that certain types of behavior may be more appropriate for one subculture, such as a church family, than for another subculture, such as the friends that I go out with on Friday nights. It is entertaining to me, if no one else, to demonstrate through photos all the different aspects that make me the person I am.