Tuesday 14 April 2009

Schizophrenia

I finally caved in and made myself a Facebook profile. I'm not exactly a private person or terribly shy but I have always been weary about posting personal details online. It often flabbergasts me what people post about themselves online. All that data will be there forever for everyone to find whether it be a possible employer, a creepy stalker or a new girlfriend. Face it we have nothing to hide but in some cases our oppinions or style may work against us. Loki has always given me a chance to be present online without revealing my RL identity. If you Google my RL name you get about 133 hits and 90% of those refer to someone who happens to have the same name. Run a search for "Loki Popinjay" and you get 2600 hits and there is no one else by that name.


The only thing bugging me now is the schizophrenic situation of having two completely separate online identities. On the one hand I wouldn't mind sharing some aspects of my SL life with RL friends or the other way around but it's near impossible or at least a lot of work to do it selectively. If I link both I do it for everyone and I'm not sure I want that. Somehow it would spoil the liberty Loki enjoys so much and I guess it would also take away part of the fantasy and mystery that has always been part of the SL and in general online experience.

Of course I have RL friends who know about SL and I have SL friends who know a lot about my RL. There are even those who are friends in both RL and SL. I think for now that's how it will stay.