Virtual lives

I've thought about this for a quite sometime and wanted to write about it.

Ever since the instant messengers have been around we have developed virtual personalities. The person who chats is not always the the person we are. And this personality(split) has only become glaringly obvious with the advent of the social sites.

When I created my Orkut account more than 2 years back I realised that I was actually advertising myself and I didn't really like that. I noticed that I could be whatever I thought was cool. Or I could choose to portray only the sides of myself that I thought were entertaining or attractive. And for what??? Was I trying to be a cool person???

Coming to think of it, isn't that what we all do in our lives. We meet people and we act. We package ourselves coolly to gain notice and appreciation. Only FB allows you to create your profile and tell it all blatantly. Just how many of us are being ourselves when we create our profiles????? Yes we want to show how happy, cool(I totally cannot help using it repetitively. I'm not outta words, its just apt), creative and popular we are.

You see I'm not criticising the social sites or people who fill up their profiles with pics and tons of info but just questioning what we really are. I often come across as chatty and witty when I'm chatting. I don't think I'm half that entertaining in person. (Unless you know me really well or I'm high. Not necessarily on alcohol.)

SO now the point being, am I being myself when online or am I pretending? Which is the real me? I know they are 2 facets of my personality but then how are they so different. Is the anonymous nature of the internet where I am not face to face with people let me open up more easily to people?? It has created an entire social sphere with rules and values of its own. Its surprising how often I hear myself say that, "I know her, I've seen her on FB". I try to rebel(I'm not sure why since I fail to see anything wrong with this culture.) and not be a part of it. But I still log onto FB every few hours even if I don't do anything.

I guess in the end it all adds up to me.