Problems on the internet

Post Reply New Topic

Hi, does anybody else have problems socializing or using the internet?

Don't get this the wrong way, I know about the mechanics of the internet. I just have a lot of stuff to cover.

First I wanted to discuss my online persona. Sometimes I get the slight fear that people will link all the things I posted over my 5+ year history of the internet will try and piece together my identity (either my "true" internet persona or my real-life identity). I want to start over a new internet persona from scratch without making myself look like something I'm not. Please give me a solution. I feel that I have too many accounts and posts over the years that accumulated and will stay once its on the internet, and I kind of get a shut down from it.

Another issue has to do with having social network anxiety. It's all bewildering to me, I have a habit of taking down an account on Facebook only to create a new one to change my social persona. It's pressing me.

If anybody has any good solutions I want to hear them.

If you want to avoid leaving a "paper trail" stay off the net. Or use a lot of different computers in a lot of different libraries.

ruveyn

That's not the issue I'm facing.
I just want to let go of my 'paper trail' so far and start over. Not technically speaking, because I know that's impossible.

I sometimes get paranoid over stuff like that. So I will say this:
Firstly, I am pretty convinced that I am not special enough for anyone to bother with (this is what I tell myself). I have no money, no power, no fame, no appeal in any way that most people would find worth going to trouble for.
If you are a nobody like me, try to enjoy the anonymity. They may want to advertise at you - that's about it. Obviously be careful about bank details, etc

Secondly there are discussions in certain circles, or so I hear, about teaching the internet to forget. So, instead of stuff being 'out there' forever, it will be automatically wiped in maybe 5 years, unless it's made to stay.This is to prevent the net getting too junked up with stupid crap like what teenagers did last night (which it already is), and to allow some protection for people who had unfortunate things about them put online. I think this is something that wasn't originally thought about, but now it seems pretty obvious- to me, anyway. People assume it's forever, but data also gets corrupted, and computers get replaced, and people find something new to play with.

In other words, you are probably worrying way too much about it. I actually think it'd good that you can 'wipe' one personality and replace it with another, but you might find you are never happy with yourself that way.
This is why I have opted to focus on being honest with who I am and preparing to have people either take it or leave it, about who I am. Role playing is difficult because you are not being true to yourself. You should honour your one and only life by letting yourself be you. Anyone doesn't like it, well f*** them. We can't all be the cool kids.

This is precisely why I create a lot of fake identities ahead of time.

Seriously, though, not much you can do after the fact. Some posters reveal way too much personal info here, with some of these polls. I always wonder who is asking all these questions and why they want people to reveal so much.

One thing you can do is put up a lot of web sites about yourself and use SEO techniques to promote them. A guy called Swami Kriyananda did that. The web was filled with details about his sordid past. His people created dozens of web sites for him, his organizations, his music, his publishing house, and everything else. They used SEO to get them to show up on the first page of Google. You can still find the sordid stuff, but it's buried now and much less likely to be found by casual searchers who rarely go beyond the first page or two of Google's results. Google helps you these days by being so totally useless. The first page of hits is usually page after page after page of the same site.

The only real aspect to bear in mind is to isolate relational data. Simply posting anything is a projection of some level of persona.

What benefit would one gain from investing the time to trawl the web for your entire history?

The CIA, in partnership with SRD and under the In-Q-Tel heading, have developed online persona management software and protocols. There is some interesting reading if you are interested in creating compartmentalized identities, e.g. for work and play. https://www.cia.gov/news-information/sp ... marks.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... l-networks

Some universities (eg http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/brand-yourself/) have courses in reputation management. There is a big, scam-infested industry that charges people excessive fees to "correct" their online reputation, and often does more damage than good. The methods are easy to apply yourself and effective.

The most important issue (in my experience) is that you must have an email address at a trustworthy site (eg GMail) for each online identity, and never cross-post anything that would link any pair of identities. And always ASSUME that anyone who really wants to know (law enforcement, a future boss, or an opponent in a legal battle) will be able to match all your online personas to you.

Real life is full of spineless dumbasses so I can't get along with people there.
The internet is full of people who think they are hot s**t when they never get off the internet long enough to become hot s**t.

I try to seperate dating profiles, car forum profiles, porn profiles, etc. so that no one aspect of my life can be connected to the others. Although I will talk about a portion of the unconnected stuff on forums but I know that there is very very very little chance any profile where I haven't specifically stated my name and location (and even then, I've lived in 5 or so cities in 5 years) could be connected to the rest. My friends consider me an expert on cyberstalking and I wouldn't even waste the time it would take to connect my dots (even though I know where to look for them!

I never really create an entire new persona though. I always am my usual down to earth assholy self.