Saved by Aman and
Pseudonyms Lets You Practice Agency
I had come to equate being taken seriously and being smart with wearing glasses. So I thought, What if I wore glasses? I figured—as absurd as it sounds—it was worth a try.
Todd Herman • The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life
There is something freeing about removing your face from your online persona. It paradoxically makes you feel like you can be more authentic. This is a stretch of an analogy but just as psychedelics that facilitate ego death allow for a truer glimpse at your underlying psychology, untying your digital persona from your smiling LinkedIn photo allows... See more
Nat Eliason • From PFPs to VIDs
Authenticity brings us to avatars. This might seem a strange connection: aren’t avatars, by nature, inauthentic? After all, avatars entail being someone other than yourself. But for many people, avatars are a vessel for more authentic self-expression.
Rex Woodbury • Throughlines (Part I)
Why was that pseudonymous presence on the internet better? Social media platforms have made all of us minor celebrities, and celebrity is an unpleasant thing. Celebrity psychology is fundamentally anxious, burdening us with constant performance, self-consciousness and self-censorship.
Sarah Guo • When we design our identities from scratch
This foreclosure on play by tying our digital expressions to our real selves has done more than just make roleplaying feel like abnormal or unusual behavior. I think it works in the opposite direction, too. For people who do still roleplay, an impulse grows to blur the line between game-life and real-life. The character ceases to be a character, an... See more