Excuse us, we’re not ourselves

via Christine Huang at PSFK:

The channels, gadgets, websites and apps to help us be and/or feel ’social’ (with a real person or just the idea of one) are only getting smarter and more diverse. Our everyday lives find many of us immersed in entirely virtual communication and socialization, based on a simulacrum of real life or an entirely fantastical one. We are avatars talking to avatars, on our own terms, at our convenience.

Except that’s not entirely true.  Because when the scope of communication transcends the normal human bounds of space and time—when your avatar is online constantly and you, being merely human, need to sleep/bathe/etc—communication is no longer a matter of convenience.  It’s a matter of necessity.  So if you’re not there, which you is that person really talking to?  And can you entirely trust your other self to behave while you’re away?

Christine addresses a couple of interesting stories in her post – the 2d otaku love affairs in japan (and here in the states too, to be honest) and a recent study equating feelings of belongingness gained from watching TV to the same feelings that come from real human interaction.  She concludes:

Our relationships with objects, characters and avatars is always at a distance – we are interacting with the representation of something, rather than the thing itself. This arrangement results in a unique type of relationship – one that should be considered differently than a real-life interpersonal one.

What if the reason we’re growing to identify more with fictional characters is that we ourselves are becoming fictional characters? Everyone’s got their own narrative and meta-narrative. Everyone’s persona is to some extent externalized, our connections and roots as human beings stored and managed online.  It’s accepted now that people are their own brands and need to manage their appearances accordingly.  Your digital self – arguably your most important persona – is way more malleable of an identity construct than any we’ve ever dealt with in the past.  It’s so easy to rewrite who you are.  It follows that it should also be easier than ever to imagine yourself in any situation with your favorite characters… because you’re just as imaginary as they are.

We’re soon going to look back on the days of mid-life and quarter-life crises with a sigh and a patronizing smirk.  The future is one long stretch of identity crises.  And even when you finally die, your other yous will remain.