I read this article.
I read Joanne McNeil's blog post today about how humans naturally bend towards creating false, or somewhat false, personas in order to actually more purely tell our stories. She mentions how it is easier to be ourselves under the guise of someone else, which is something I think about a lot. In person if you meet me I have extreme social anxiety, I am very shy and uncomfortable and awkward, but I found my voice on Instagram. I gained my confidence by creating this persona of myself all with the intent of gaining more of a following and making more connections. My interests are still my interests, I'm still into funky style and fashion and music, but this is all enhanced with my more confident internet persona. It allows me to experience being the girl who loves herself and has confidence and I'm not doing anyone else any harm by doing so. In fact, it is making me a better person and bettering my life, byt giving me confidence and becoming more comfortable in myself. I also found a voice, and a group.
This persona has worked its way more prominantly into my art. You can see I am a more confident woman, and I like to express these themes through my photographs, designs, videos, etc.
1. Can't these personas that we create actually just be who we are? Why is there the notion that we are creating fake people when we are just making ourselves into what we want to be?
2. Joanne does talk about how she has no problem with people wanting to pretend being say a female on a dating app to experience life from the "other side", but at what point can this be hurtful to the person on the other end?