"Performing Self" by Erik Anderson

Often you may hear someone say the occasional phrase “so and so is two faced.” What they mean is that a particular person may act one way and say certain things with one friend, but say or act a completely different way with another. This happens quite frequently in reality as well as it does in cyberspace. Is this dishonest, or is it a more complex means for survival?
This leads us into the realm of self and space. Who we are and where we are play an effective role in our “looking glass self,” or who we appear to be to others. We interpret who we are by the reactions of others; they are in a way a metaphorical mirror. It’s necessary for everyone and anyone to have different mirrors or images, rather everyone is “two faced.” We all must project different sides of our self in order to complete a goal, play, or meet an expectation.
Jan is a mother of two, by day she works at as a secretary at an important law firm, in the evening she plays the role of mother, and at night she plays the role of lover to her husband. Jan in this aspect has many “selves.” This is in no way shape or form dishonest; it is however, a means for survival. In one space she communicates as an effective adult, multitasking and trafficking information. In another space she is nurturing and caring, and in another form she becomes intimate. If these self images and spaces collided, or in some act of phenomena were allowed to be confused then maybe this might be considered dishonest, because then she would not be her “self.” With that said there are many level to a persons’ “self.” There is neither an absolute “Jan,” nor is there a multitude of “Jan’s.”
Cyberspace and our self propelled image then is anything but juggling tasks, in this world of self-made image. Here, a person can create their own persona. People can create their own image and people on the internet have no choice but to believe them, because people only believe what you tell them. Is it dishonest, maybe, it depends on the circumstances. If I am pretending to be a twelve year old boy in order to lure a little girl into a park, then yes, that’s dishonest. If I am pretending to be a single man in a singles chat room researching dialogue in cyberspace hoping to improve ways to be charming for men world wide, then it’s fine. It’s the intentions that make image of “self” honest or dishonest.
In here people live and die by the words they create, it’s a world where only the articulate get laid. This is both beautiful and tragic at the same time. If you have ever chatted in a chat room you notice that there is one called the “host.” And in this room he is god, he controls time and space, he determines who will stay and who will go. Who has this kind of power and authority in the “real world?” That is the beauty of it. There is more freedom in cyberspace than there is in any country in the real world. Here is the tragic part of it….Its not real! The internet is to the real world as a daydream is to a person, an excellent way to escape and imagine, but sooner or later you have to wake up.