Let’s be real

Posted on | August 16, 2009 |

One thing I’ve noticed, again and again, is that the internet allows us to adopt a persona - a mask that conveys an impression we wish to convey - and that such a persona wouldn’t last very long in a face to face conversation with someone who truly knows us.

I’ve seen it all too often. People I know as honest, sensitive, and questioning, people who are taking the time to be authentic - - these same people feel they have to produce facebook comments that are witty and sassy and altogether less fully wise that the person I know. And so, in a moment of ego, of wishing to appear more confident than they are, wonderful people lose sight of their inner selves and wave goodbye to real insight.

It’s nice to be in the realm of ego, and of posturing; but let’s not pretend it’s a suitable diet for a healthy mind and heart.  In my more skeptical moments I suspect the internet is helping us to be more in this ego world where no one knows us well enough to challenge us, and therefore less in a space in which we are being honest and vulnerable.  Even as more of us are writing (and reading) more than ever before I fear that we are in danger of becoming more remote from our authentic selves.

We can reverse this trend if we wish. I’m game. How about you?

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