Identity Crisis

As with many other fellow DH23Things participants, embarking on our first posts over the last week, I have discovered that one of the most interesting things about writing blog entries is reading them back to oneself. Many have confessed to editing or revising posts after initial publication (whether that publication was intentional or otherwise) or in light of comments received, either slightly shamefacedly or wholeheartedly advocating the process. While I’ve changed nothing about my initial post apart from a typo on line 17, I do realise I perhaps fell slightly into the trap which rattusscholasticus mentions in the comments on the above link, of wanting to be ‘A Grand Authority Dispensing Wisdom.’ Not only does this demonstrate how useful simply seeing one’s own thoughts ‘in print’ can be, but also neatly segues into Thing Two, namely one’s online identity.

The first question this raises is the purpose of having an online presence at all. In the form of a blog, I’ve just discussed its salutary use as a sounding board for ideas – whether these are fledgling research topics or musings on broader issues, one benefits from trying to formulate one’s thoughts coherently and potentially receiving feedback on them, as well as finding one’s ‘voice’. But aside from the personal uses, there are also potential professional advantages to an active online identity (as well as drawbacks). In a profession where one’s quality and originality of thought, as well as to a greater or lesser extent one’s communication skills, are key, a thoughtful and well written blog can impress, and a complete online persona around this can make one’s more serious research and professional activities easily accessible to those who want to find out about them. An online presence independent of one’s current institution is also useful to establish an intellectual career continuity when moving between positions. Independent blogs and opinions expressed there can also lead to problems though. Even without such incidents, there can be a perceived conflict of interests, with a blog either detracting from ‘real’ research or leaking potentially publishable ideas. An online identity requires careful management as well, especially if it exists over several platforms, whether unifying disparate identities or keeping personal and professional separate. The first thing potential employers do nowadays, we are told, is google candidates; the advice is usually set Facebook privacy settings to maximum and phasers to stun but, of course, one can also accentuate the positives as well as trying to suppress the photos from that Vegas hotel room.

Now, in my current situation – putting the ‘early’ into ‘early career researcher’ – I have a good opportunity to start from scratch, building a coherent profile as I go along. I am also in the fairly unique situation of being highly Google-able, having a unique name (it’s a first-generation double-barrel, if that’s the correct term). Google me, and you get me (so long as its spelt correctly): none of it is professionally relevant (mostly college society websites and a handful of theatre reviews) but nor is any of it at all unprofessional or embarrassing. It is surprising how quickly one moves from the public to the semi-personal though; despite having gradually tightened up my facebook privacy lately, a couple of pages in to the Google search and you start finding websites that have archived (out of date) Facebook information, such as friends, groups and ‘likes.’ While none of this is particularly compromising, one quickly sees the motivation for sites such as about.me or flavours.me to establish an authoritative version of the online ‘you’ (which is indeed what most of these personal data sites are advertising).

So where does that leave me? Well, while online privacy issues, the mixing of personal and professional lives, are worth considering, the best way of dealing with them is actively engaging with one’s online personae rather than shutting them down completely. While I object to the slightly insidious aspect of Facebook, it is a useful social tool, so I will continue to use it for personal ends (and if, in the mean time, someone can tell me how to get it to stop trying to tag my whereabouts at every turn, I’d appreciate it). My public, and perhaps in time professional, identity is something I am interested in developing, but will think carefully about how to do so. Keeping a blog broadly ‘professional’ does not mean it can’t be informal or even fun. For now, I have kept this blog essentially anonymous; I am using it as part of a learning experience about digital tools and don’t want to be associated with it irrevocably for time being. If I am going to use it for professional/research purposes, I would at least consider a more Classics-related title* and would certainly have to link my name to it before too long. The role an interesting or recognisable pseudonym plays in crafting an ‘identity’ through one’s blog is important, I think, and is not all about secrecy and anonymity. After all it has long been known who the cryptic crossword compiler, Araucaria, is, but this name brings to mind a certain character when printed in the back pages of the Guardian and serves as a separation of professional and personal lives, in the same way that an informal and characteristic online identity helps maintain a professional persona above and beyond personal uses.

* bonus points for anyone who understands the current one…