I Am Not A Username: Generation Authentic
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 8:43AM The shift to Facebook from MySpace is a palpable and important one. And while privacy and identity will come front and center in many discussions as Facebook Connect debuts, there’s something else that has been signaled in the last five years. That something else, in my opinion, is a perforation of Generation Y into two groups and what I feel is really a new generation. And while exact years aren’t entirely clear yet, I feel the differences are gelling into a distinctive pattern. The next generation, or at least the makings of one, I call: Generation Authentic.
The authentic self has taken a rough ride in the last twenty years as online identities spun and splintered in the chaotic free-for-all. As Sherry Turkle posited with the non-linear possibilities of multiple online identities, the rise of MySpace and email gave way to conventions of multiple identities. Often we found ourselves even as adults having multiple email addresses that spoke to lifestyle silos of work, home, school and play. MySpace’s lack of restriction on multiple profiles meant you could be whomever you wanted and we saw highschoolers playing out the common struggles of identity formation in a virtual space. When they went to college though, a harsh reality set in: Facebook was about you the person, not you of five faces. This too was a typical scenario really, since after high school you went to college where often you started stripping away the many extraneous facets. In college you could start over and become the aggregate of who you were before. The MySpace to Facebook transition also mirrored that time-honored rite of passage.
But in the last few years a new shift has signaled a different issue altogether. Now Facebook has become the first (and for many “only”) place for those in high school. And by skipping the online aspect of trying on the various personalities, or at least having that potential, we start to see the early aggregation online. You see actions tied to a real name, not “LonelyBear42” or any number of real or fantastic nicknames. It means the authentic self, still in an immature pupa stage, is in the spotlight far sooner. That’s not to say it’s not hidden with privacy locks, or it means any particular amount of carelessness or discretion.
I feel that we will see an actual rebuffing of anonymity, that students become prouder of their associations with actions, allegiances and such. I feel like the Username will start to have the same lackluster personal connotation as the barcode or serial number. I feel this trend will likely result in rebuffs of, “I am not a username” arguments.
In Sarah Perez’ “The End Of Online Anonymity” there is (finally) an argument that the internet may be taking turns to relinquish the anonymous space in favor of content and interaction firmly entrenched in identity. And yet, Perez clearly is focusing on the topic from a credential standpoint, inextricably linked to privacy concerns and issues. Perez begins to drill into a key theme that isn’t just about online giants and their bottom lines.
In fact one could argue that Perez presents a very Generation X and Y point of view on all of this, while this possible Generation Authentic would read such an article and reply, “about time…”
-Dean
Reader Comments (4)
Thanks to nothing dying online, I think the phrase "authentic" might be a bit of a misnomer. For people to be authentic online, they would have to be themselves without any filter, and presenting yourself in slices is still the only real way people can post online. Facebook forces you to constrain your personality into the methods that the site provides or the Ninja/Pirate/Robot apps. Twitter tries to boil the personality down into 140 characters. MySpace did the same, but it was personality through friend collection. Collecting disparate data points relating to personal interests doesn't add up to a person, they can't. Rather these data points, these various profiles at numerous online social networks, are just a form of personal branding.
And it's branding, not authenticity, that is proving more important in the face of Google's brave new world. While people certainly seem to be closing their online reputation to a single name or idea, that doesn't mean they are being any more truthful, it simply means they are being more careful and controlling about what is being displayed online. Everything is still filtered, there is just more product, more content put online than there was before. Quantity equates to neither quality nor authenticity.
Thanks for your comment!
I see what you mean by the use of the word authentic and user choice in what is presented as true. That said, if we become too strict in what authenticity is we could get caught in noticing that normal action is inauthentic (choice of clothes we wear, how truthful on surveys, whether someone orders what they really want in a restaurant). My point is that people are increasingly not behind the social firewalls of usernames and therefore the perception of what is attributed to a person is no longer masked. Whether that is true or believed to be true by the individual is irrelevant to many outside audiences if their name is connected (for a negative example, an employer doesn't care if the photo of the prospective employee is representative of what they do everyday or not- if it's enough to not hire them than they will make the assumptions necessary). It does mean a certain cult of personality reigns. But I do feel that the tightening up of what is represented publicly is happening and that over time we will see what people choose to connect themselves with as a much more deliberate choice, and much more true to form. That's the shift I'm seeing and I'm interested in following down the rabbit hole, to see if it plays out.
-Dean
It's safe to say that Facebook has replaced MySpace as the largest single social networking site. The problem, as I see it, is that Facebook is rapidly losing prominence in the online sphere. And I think that's the problem I'm bumping into regarding your view of the future generation of users.
Users today are juggling their reputation amongst several locations. Twitter, Flickr, Facebook - they're all pieces of the online reputation puzzle, and all of which are interchangeable and replaceable. Today's users are simply growing more savvy at navigating between all of these, and the conversation's that they have readily shift between networks in the same way that second generation immigrants shift between their native tongue and English in mid-conversation without confusing the other party.
People are taking actual ownership of their own online identities. Sites like usernamecheck.com allow someone to see where a name is current registered. Both Facebook and MySpace are working on data portability, so that users can potentially take all of their connections, blog posts, photos, and site-related minutia with them.
Whether they choose to do that under their real name, or their username, seems to relate more to age than online location. If someone is attempting to leverage their online reputation for professional gain either online or in meatspace, I think it's safe to say they're probably trading under their real name. However, those looking to understand themselves, as high schoolers are wont to do, the name will largely remain unimportant.
I don't think Facebook is going to destroy the screenname, nor is the Lori Drew case (Sarah's point, not yours) going to make it illegal to operate anonymously. The real test, it seems, will be whether one single replacement pops up for the next largest social network, or whether the social networking scene splinters into a loose collective of niche players.
Except that you don't have a choice of using a username on Facebook- it's your name. And while you're right about the disparate network functionality (Twitter, Flickr, etc...) I have seen more and more of people using the same name or email-name variation (such as "dbrowell") running straight through each account. I don't know of anyone who has multiple Flickr accounts, but I know of many people who use a large number of varying tags to separate work photos from play photos. And for that matter, more and more people use a FriendFeed to update more and more accounts with a single entry. A form of aggregating down to at least a singular entity that, if they use Facebook, is tied to a real name.
I don't think Facebook can or will destroy the username, but I think the shift of both young and old to Facebook does have some identity issues riding sidecar. Combine that with the want to take control and centralize their identity system, and you've got an emerging late teen with more tied to a singular identity (and likely a real name) than years past.
Thanks again for commenting, this is a great discussion and one not had enough as these changes are happening...