Probably everyone has an internet persona, to a certain extent. Because of online disinhibition, we feel free to construct ourselves differently than we would offline—for better or worse. We construct our “self” in real life, too, but it seems more intentional online. You can formulate a persona and delete or add things to change your image. You can create a new account and distance yourself from the old one and rebrand entirely, the way corporations do. It may be a bit harder now, since the internet is a lot less anonymous than it used to be and people bring receipts, but it’s still possible.
There’s still a lot of research to be done on how the internet affects our psychology. A lot of articles say the internet—or more specifically, the social internet—is making us more anxious, though that could be a chicken-and-egg situation.[1]
One would think that being able to be whoever we want, to construct a perfect version of ourselves that we can be proud of, on the internet would make us feel good.
The jury’s out on that.
El's Reading Journal 