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Online Personas

Taking a dive back into my theoretical background, which for better or for worse includes a lot of physchoanalytical theories, I am particularly interested in the question of "online personas" that we might develop to represent ourselves and participate in the digital world. Personas, in the psychoanalytic tradition, describe the interface between the self and the world/others - “a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual” (C. Jung, 1953).

The process of forming a persona is a healthy form of adaptation that allows us to participate in society as an identifiable member of that society by representing its expected traits (e.g. values, cultural norms) without having to collapse our identity into society completely. Being able to maintain this difference between the self and the world through a persona ultimately allows us to create distance between traits of the world that do not correspond well to traits of our "true self" (Winnicott). We can have different personas for different contexts and use and adapt them flexibly, as required. Crucially, a persona is not the same as the self but more like the role an actress plays on stage.

Healthy interaction with the world therefore requires a constant adaptation of the persona, as neither we nor the world stay the same. Where it gets problematic - according Jung, at least - is when people fully identify with their persona - "Identification" in Jung-speak. People who do this have a problem because:

"They have little or no concept of themselves as beings distinct from what society expects of them."

In this state, there cannot be individual psychological growth that runs counter to societal expectations, as it is always immediately contrasted without an intermediary. Therefore, we might get stuck in a role, always wearing our mask without realizing that there is an entire private person being neglected. Uncomfortable.

Online Participation and Digital Literacy

I will use this theoretical backdrop to collect a few loose thoughts that aren't necessarily interconnected but relate to the topic of online participation and digital literacies.

• Online spaces allow more flexibility in how we shape our personas, as they need not be tied to our physical characteristics.
• As opposed to physical presence, online presence is constant, which requires separation of personas through digital skills/literacy (e.g. tool selection, privacy settings, code-switching, boundary-setting).
• Online spaces have fast-changing implicit and explicit norms, rules and expectations that are reinforced through built-in mechanisms and behaviors ("smash that like-button, hit subscribe and click the little bell icon to get notifications whenever there is a new upload")
• Becoming visible in an online space requires the creation and maintenance of a persona that is constructed to cater towards those norms, rules and expectations.
• Because of this, I would expect that the contrast between online personas and the "true self" can be particularly stark and that unique problems arise from this contrast, especially when online and physical spaces collapse (e.g. being in a professional video call from home).

• There is ample evidence that increased social media use and mental health issues are linked (directly or indirectly).

• As education professionals, we have a significant role in shaping the online spaces in which our learners engage with us, each other, and the material.

Personal Note

ONL is a new, unfamiliar online space for me and I am finding that I am crafting my online persona as I am participating in the larger community, my PBL group, and through the exercise of writing this reflection. I am very aware of how I am scanning the forum entries and comments, other reflections and the results of the PBL groups in order to distill the norms, rules and expectations that I could (maybe) fold into this persona. Am I in a professional context where I am to display my expertise? Am I in a casual context? A personal one? I am not yet sure but I expect that I will land somewhere in the middle of it all.

This post was brought to you by my evolving ONL online persona