Category: Online Identities

Online Gaming Online Identities Small Humans Tech

Real life vs. online life: For kids, is there a difference?

sudshr47 October 13, 2018

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Welcome to Small Humans, an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2018 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

When Amber Petersen noticed her seven-year-old daughter was spending progressively more time playing games online, she reached back into the 1800s for a little instruction.

On a summer day this year, as Brooklyn explored a virtual playground on Roblox, the popular gaming platform designed for young kids, Petersen read out loud from Meet Kirsten, a kids’ chapter book based in the 1850s that’s part of doll-maker American Girl’s historical fiction series.  Read more…

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Gamergate Identity Online Identities online identity Reddit

Trolls thought I was a man. That saved me.

sudshr47 July 29, 2018

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This post is part of Me, online, Mashable’s ongoing series digging into online identities.

I was locked in my friends’ bathroom on the phone with my thesis adviser and staring at Reddit. It was snowing pretty hard and though there was a window with some theoretical light streaming in, I felt like I was under a blanket, the flashlight of my attention pointed at a screen that I refreshed and refreshed and refreshed. I was discussing the critical thesis component required for my graduate degree, an MFA in creative writing. It was titled Masculinity and the Making of the Modern Nerd. It was a mess. Read more…

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Culture Identity Online Identities Vine Youtube

How Drew Gooden rebuilt his online identity after Vine died

sudshr47 July 8, 2018

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This post is part of Me, online, Mashable’s ongoing series digging into online identities. 

If you’ve ever found yourself mourning the downfall of Vine by binging compilations late at night — because really, who hasn’t? — you’ve probably seen Drew Gooden’s iconic “Road work ahead? I sure hope it does!” 

That Vine inspired remixes, parodies, and fan merchandise. But the 24-year-old is ready to work on other projects. 

Like many Vine stars, Gooden’s made the transition to YouTube as a vlogger. Three years after that immensely popular Vine, he’s navigating the world of reaction videos, figuring out his own brand, and trying to move past being known as the Road Work Ahead guy.   Read more…

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Anxiety Culture Identity Online Identities Social Media

I’m way cooler on the internet than I am in person, and it gives me anxiety

sudshr47 June 20, 2018

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This post is part of Me, online, Mashable’s ongoing series digging into online identities.

“Chill the fuck out,” my internet self is constantly shouting to my real-life self.

See, I exist as two personalities: internet me and real-life me. Don’t we all? Living in a world of constant connection has led to these funhouse mirror versions of ourselves — they look like us but they’re slightly distorted, exaggerated, never quite shaping into a distinguishable human form. 

With social media, the funhouse effect is even more amplified. In many cases those identities become proxies for our real-life selves. The internet me interacts with hundreds, if not thousands, of people every day. Real-life me? Well, real-life me would love nothing more than a couple hours of silence and maybe, on some days, to speak only with the person delivering my Seamless.  Read more…

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Identity Online Identities online identity Personality Quiz

What’s your internet personality type?

sudshr47 June 19, 2018

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This post is part of Me, online, Mashable’s ongoing series digging into online identities.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably online, which, you know, good luck. But have you ever wondered exactly what type of online you are?

It takes all sorts to make an internet, from the fighters to the lurkers to the people who don’t really understand the internet at all. In our opinion, discovering your internet personality is kind of like the famed Myers-Briggs test — it relies on four main divides. 

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Culture Email Identities Identity Online Identities

The email problem no one is talking about: mistaken identity

sudshr47 June 19, 2018

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This post is part of Me, online, Mashable’s ongoing series digging into online identities.

In 2009, a San Francisco web strategist named Tim — last name withheld for reasons that will become clear — opened his Gmail to find a message from a Build-a-Bear workshop in St. Louis. The email was addressed to someone called Tamara. 

That’s odd, thought Tim, but thought little more about it. Days later he received an email directed at someone called Toby. It contained photos of a family eating an Easter meal with, his correspondent assured him, “lots and lots of BACON!” 

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