How Many Personas Do You Maintain Online (and Why)?
Posted January 7, 2011 in Lifestyle, Social Media
In the not too distant past people often defined themselves by saying they wore several “hats.” One could wear the mother hat, the nurse hat, the wife hat, the lover hat–and switch them off and on with no one thinking anything of it, because they could still see that it was really just you.
It’s different now, and instead of switching hats–you switch personas, which, for Internet users, is more like switching skins.
As a freelancer, do you wear different hats, to allow you to show different parts of your personality without jeopardizing your image?
Who Are You?
An online persona is an identity that a user establishes to represent themselves on the Internet. Personas first showed up when people started setting up user accounts at different sites using different login information. Some carried it further by entering different addresses, phone numbers, and birth dates in an effort to guard against identity theft. It didn’t take long for most people to accumulate half a dozen or so aliases.
The next step was the use of avatars–small icon images used to represent the user. People often chose to use an image of a celebrity or a favorite cartoon character, and eventually some had custom artwork created to use as their online image.
Is That Your Real Name?
The real surge of multiple personas came about in the last few years with the widespread use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Personas are so common that it’s unusual to find someone using their actual name and information. Many people see no problem with this, and don’t see any difference between using different personas on the Internet and using them in real life. After all, you probably behave differently around your parents than you do around your friends, your husband than your girlfriends, your doctor rather than your soccer teammates.
When you’re a freelancer, it’s easy to bleed your professional and personal lives together–after all, often times you’re working from home or coworking in a place outside your office, so it’s tough to really feel like you need a professional identity. After all, as a freelancer you’re representing yourself right? Kind of. You need to keep a line drawn, and this is where personas are perfect.
Freelancers can maintain “professional” personas for their work related interactions and “personal” personas for other interests.
Here is an example of how people use personas to maintain different identities for their personal and professional interests:
- Susan is a teen-aged Anime geek. She maintains a large collection of manga. She can tell you every detail of every character in all of her favorites and is considered an expert by many of her Facebook followers. She also draws in Anime style and has a large fan base eagerly awaiting the next chapter of the original Anime series that she writes and illustrates.
- Eighteen year old BrendaB has several level 80 characters in the widely popular massively multi-player game called World of Warcraft. Although young, she is one of the founders of a large guild of players and often mentors “newbies” when they join. You can count on seeing her in game at least 20 hours a week.
- Laurel is a 36 year old professional copywriter with a long list of customers who receive short messages about her availability via her Twitter account. She is well known and respected among the professional copywriting community because she has never missed a deadline and will take on emergency and quick turn over work–and get it done.
Are You Surprised?
Would it surprise you to know that all three of these personas are really the same person? Would you feel deceived if you found out–or would you even care? If you’re a freelancer, do you maintain different identities to let out different parts of your personality through your work? Your answer will probably define your generation.
Baby boomers and Generations X and Y mostly defined themselves as honest and strove to maintain their reputation among their peers as a personal brand. Most were not born into the digital age. Generation V–the first truly digital and virtual generation–has grown up with digital media for learning, sharing, and, in some cases, socializing, and the concept of personas is readily accepted.
The Professional Persona
The use of online personas spread like wildfire at first, but now some realities are setting in. Many high school and college students started personas without a thought as to how those personas might affect future employment opportunities–but a lot of companies with the corporate mentality of honesty and integrity don’t look lightly upon the practice of maintaining false identities.
As a freelance designer, you can often times get away with not having your image for your avatars in the first place. Often times you can use your brand logo, so people can look past your persona and see you for your art.
The same goes with writers–many are interested in the words that come out, as opposed to who you are, so as long as they are getting quality work, you’re safe to hide behind a different persona to write about things you normally wouldn’t want attached to your name. Often times you may want to write outside of your typical style, but do not want to sacrifice your audience (or clients). You can get around this by maintaining different identities (hey, actors have stage names!).
Strangely enough, as Generation V has entered the corporate world the new use for these personas is to establish clearly separated personal and career aliases. Many working professionals have one standard alias for use with friends and another for use with their work. The professional alias allows users to provide an effective presentation on social media sites, blogs, and other web resources, and opens the door to cross-promotion of these varied web tools. On the other hand, media like party pictures, your love life, your political opinions, and other personal data can remain just that–personal–behind the screen of an alias used only among your less business-oriented social group.
Your Turn
While some people have claimed that the use of multiple personas is dishonest and unhealthy, they are probably here to stay. Certainly, their use is changing and evolving over time, but the “rules” have yet to be set in stone. What about you? How many personas do you maintain, and why?
Image by Chiara Marra
Related posts:
- Why Online Friends are Important to Freelancers
- Why Online Reputation Management Is More Important Than Ever
About the author: Sonia Tracy is the content editor for PsPrint and editor of PsPrint Design Blog. She likes to write, do yoga and make nerdy “Star Wars” and “Simpsons” references. PsPrint is an online commercial printing company specializing in brochure printing. You can follow PsPrint on Twitter @PsPrint.
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38 Comments
Robert Dempsey
January 7th, 2011 at 8:47 amEven though I have numerous websites and Twitter accounts, I maintain that it is all me. I realized long ago that having different personas, namely a work persona and a personal persona, was a waste of time. Why did I have to be different at all?
So no, there is only one Rob, no matter where online you find me.
Vivek Parmar
January 7th, 2011 at 9:08 amIts a total wastage of time having different persona. As a freelancer and blogger, its necessary to be productive at work and different persona will only waste your time. One persona means you have to concentarte on one thing, that is enough for any one.
Laura Spencer
January 7th, 2011 at 9:33 amThanks for sharing this Sonia.
I agree with the other comments–this isn’t for me. At the same time, I do know that it goes on. Writers use pseudonyms all the time.
My caution would be to check with a lawyer before signing a contract using a “persona” name.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
January 7th, 2011 at 10:47 amI just want to mention that there’s a great amount of difference between adopting a persona (choosing a different set of behaviours and conveying a certain personality) and taking on a pen name (changing your name, but not your behaviours). The article above seems not to distinguish between all the nuances and lumps them into one category.
For example, I maintain a pen name… but I don’t adopt a persona. The behaviours, reactions, emotions, etc, are the same whether I use my pen name or my real name. In essence, I’m me, no matter what you call me.
But let’s say I decided to adopt a persona. I might dress differently, speak differently, act differently… essentially, behave differently as if I’m acting out a role. Not the same at all as taking on a pen name.
Also, while we might play different roles in life – mother, lover, sister, daughter – we’re not taking on personas when we do so. We’re not acting as someone else… merely being ourselves based on the situation at hand and displaying certain facets and behaviours of our own personality.
So… yeah. I just wanted to clear up confusion on the many nuances and differences that seemed to have been generalized in the article.
Jake Poinier aka Dr. Freelance
January 7th, 2011 at 11:14 amThis is an interesting question, Sonia. When I was younger, I always thought it would be cool to have a pen name when it came time to write the GenX version of “Catcher in the Rye.” Now that I’m 40-something and a businessperson who focuses on corporate copywriting rather than snarking at societal follies, using a pen name wouldn’t serve much purpose.
I do operate three different sites — business portfolio, blog (under my real name), and Dr. Freelance site, — but all of them are simply, as James describes, different facets of the real me. (Dr. Freelance is clearly a brand name, not a pen name.) If I can’t say it under one of those banners, it’ll remain unsaid.
Eddie Garrison
January 7th, 2011 at 11:14 amI use my personal name on Twitter but it is mostly for my business these days. I thought about setting up another account with the business only name but I have grown this name (personal name) on Tiwtter now so everyone associates my name with the business.
FaceBook I have both my personal and business pages I like to keep seperate and that is about all for me.
Nice piece though Sonia. It really makes people stop and think about what they will go by on-line.
Tai
January 7th, 2011 at 11:25 amI have avoided “cluttering” my business persona with my varied personal interests.
I just needed a good alias!
Danielle
January 7th, 2011 at 12:40 pmI maintain two personas. Well three if you count my contact info on my website!
But my two main ones are:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DCMediaDesign
and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DCMediaDesign
Recently I’ve been struggling with the issues of posting my personal profile picture on my Twitter site to show my followers and fellow designers who I personally am, instead of being the DC Media Design entity…it has become clear that avatars are important, so I think maybe a happy medium will be best…We’ll see!
Melissa
January 7th, 2011 at 1:13 pmI maintain two accounts on FB, Twitter and Flickr. One for business and one for personal. I put very different content on both of them and I’m more protective, security and privacy wise of the personal ones, but there is no attempt to hide that they’re both me. I do let some personal stuff bleed into my business accounts so people know there’s a real person behind the messages but I think there is a line you need to draw between the two. But actually creating different personas is just too much work for me!
Nick Ceriello
January 7th, 2011 at 2:29 pmThere was a time when I tried to keep everything in my life all tucked away on it’s own.
The other comments are pretty much target with what I learned. If you are spending your time maintaining multiple personalities you are limiting your ability to network and just wasting your time. That said I can completely understand business and personal being two different things, your privacy should be your own.
I can’t imagine a single benefit to living that way any more.
Nick
Jocelyn
January 7th, 2011 at 7:42 pmI don’t have the time or interest to maintain more than one persona.
Dr. Freelance/Jake said it best:
“If I can’t say it under one of those banners, it’ll remain unsaid.”
TheAL
January 7th, 2011 at 7:46 pmDefinitely an interesting thing to consider. Reminds me of a comic I saw on Penny Arcade about how the most normal of people like to be total pricks when the power of Internet anonymity seeps into their heads. Personally, I think it’s only human to have some private personas online, in additional to professional and personal ones. People need an outlet. I don’t condone being a ‘troll’ or harassing anyone. But sometimes a person wishes to express an opinion or comment that, while brutally honest and valid, may generate unfair backlash or animosity due to its opposition toward the status quo. Just be careful not to mix them up with your professional image, or even your default personal one.
Most of my main outlets, Facebook/Twitter/Myspace, just tie into my portfolio site. I am very honest and casual on Twitter; however, my personal Facebook is private and I am very kind and professional on my FB business page. I am dabbling being a bit of a realist, and just being myself. Though, I try not to do anything too damaging (sometimes I am a bit too casual on Twitter, for example).
Melanie
January 8th, 2011 at 7:16 amI would love to use a pseudonym for freelancing to protect my anonymity, and I have heard of people doing that. What I don’t understand is, how can you deal with contracts and payments when you have a pseudonym? Surely you have to give them a real name for that. I have also considered using a male name since I’ve heard of women doing that to get a better rate and so that clients are more pleased with their work. I want to give that a try and see how it works out, but I don’t see how it’s done.
I find that people assume I’m male for no apparent reason until I send them a contract. Then they are surprised to find a female name on it and sometimes they act like it’s a really big deal.
Maximilian Bartel
January 9th, 2011 at 6:39 amInteresting article but I usually try to be myself online — it’s just easier to be real instead of trying to be someone else. Aside from that it’s great to built some kind of personal relationship with clients showing some chosen pictures take on vacation or playing a nice match FIFA11 after work just to mention a few things you could do — that said, no need to hide behind another online persona.
hansi
January 9th, 2011 at 1:43 pmMy Blog is my alter-ego or other personality. Being basically a humor blog, my other self (Hansi) allows me to assume a more childlike nature, yet with an old retired guy, ex-hippie point of view with an edge. It’s not too far from who I really am.
Angelee
January 10th, 2011 at 3:23 amWe have different ways of approaching every person but we last with someone whom we can be ourselves. Just like online, it’s easier to keep one persona all the time. What I did before was opposite to this and I was being corrected. I learned how to value personal branding and maintain good reputation.
lobster
January 10th, 2011 at 8:38 amHi there,
I have only one personality, but use more than one name online – my real one and several doubtless-nicknames, such as “lobster”. Well… there may be parents somewhere, who name their kid like this… :o)
I do not create personas like in your example: different ages, different hometowns, different gender/sex.
I just keep my private stuff private and business stuff remains in the office – “lobster” for example came here to write an answer to this interesting article, not to promote my person or company. I keep my fellow readers away from those and the search engines. Since databases grow and grow and I cannot erase my once published data later on without a duplicate somewhere in public (as I did in the mid-90s), I changed my online-habits in that point.
I watched myself behaving a little different as “lobster” or “…” – and I see it as the same phenomenon, as you described it, when it comes to the surroundings of family, friends, soccer team, office.
What I really care about: when some kind of friendship starts growing online, I either reveal my name (and want to know more about the other one) or I clearify, that I will not share more personal stuff, even though the other one does. I usually do not start friendships online anymore – which is going smooth and easy, when being a “lobster” without any further personal data added to the image.
My usage of the internet is content-related, and not so much social, as more and more are using it.
Having said this, I go back to the sea ;o)
l.
PS: I may use the same eMail-address for several nicknames, as I use those only for that purpose and do my personal research on how spam’s working in the same time. I do not want to have to much administrative work to do on my nickname-firewall
Corey Thomasson
January 10th, 2011 at 9:31 amI think it’s okay to have different personas online, many people keep personal blogs, twitters, and especially facebook accounts separate from their professional ones. I don’t even see a problem with using a false name for the personal stuff. But you cross a line when you start misrepresenting yourself. If you’re 36 be 36. Representing yourself as a teenager is wrong (and possibly illegal). Similarly if you claim to have (or lack) experience or qualification that you don’t, you’re crossing lines.
Jason Hanley
January 10th, 2011 at 10:41 amMaintaining multiple personas to help organize your life is fine, as long as you understand that some people can and will connect the dots between them.
If you’re using them to hide information from one group — good luck — you’ll eventually fail.
Dee
January 11th, 2011 at 7:08 pmI don’t go to the extreme of pretending to be a different gender or age or anything like that, but I do tune my interaction to the people I’m interacting with, both Online and IRL. I think most people do that, and I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to do that. Some would call it trying to fit in, I prefer calling it adapting to the social environment you are in.
Sometimes I do that Online using a different handle, sometimes I use the one I use pretty much everywhere. It depends on the context–how much or how little privacy I want to maintain, the subject matter of the Online community and that community’s culture, and what facet of my personality I want to emphasize.
John McNally
January 13th, 2011 at 7:00 amI think you’re right about the different generational attitudes Sonia. I’m a baby-boomer and instinctively don’t like this idea.
When I started Internet Marketing I used some alias’s and cartoon avatars, because that seemed to be what everyone else was doing. Now I have more confidence, I just use my own name and own photo. Makes life simple.
I can understand wanting different persona for different segments of the market, but it’s still deception, which I’m not comfortable with.
I do wonder if this carries on too far, how people with multiple personality disorder would cope? It would just make their condition worse, when different personas are accepted as the norm in the wider community.
John
Leamington spa, England
John Koetsier
January 31st, 2011 at 9:44 amInteresting! I only maintain one online persona, but it’s expressed differently on different social networks:
http://sparkplug9.com/facebook-faces-masks-and-personas-me/
Doradztwo finansowe
January 24th, 2012 at 7:41 amI dugg some of you post as I cogitated they were handy extremely helpful
Ellen Girardeau Kempler
August 2nd, 2012 at 7:32 pmIf you’ve been following the news on FB today you know that this thread will probably re-emerge because “fake” profiles are so prevalent on social media today. As a writer, I have no problem with maintaining a “digital persona” (which I prefer to call a psedonymn or pen persona) or developing a “media mascot” for a business. I first saw the need to create a mascot when I was charged with managing our social media pages for a nonprofit I worked as communication director. I was the only one administering the page, and wanted to post things on my profile unrelated to the business. I did not want to be reminded of work every time I logged on. Also, I was worried about what would happen if I got laid off. When the nonprofit ran out of money two years ago and laid off all the employees but the director and administrative manager, I left them the password so that they could take over the page and the mascot profile. When the mascot “friended” people, she always did so with a note from me explaining who she was, and they were always happy to comply and also like the organization page. I’ve done the same thing with my pen persona for my business & his profile allows me to friend writers and publishers all over the world. I’ve blogged about him many times and the global community of followers on the Gold Boat Journeys “faceboat” are happy to have him aboard and above-board! Read more about Brendan Wayfarer at http://www.gold-boat.com/ship-of-fools/. Happy Sails!
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