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Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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TODAY

Thursday, March 28

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Andrew / March 3, 2008 10:07 AM

Are you meaner? Nicer? Snarkier? Less inhibited?

Eamon / March 3, 2008 10:31 AM

Quieter, certainly.

DXO / March 3, 2008 10:41 AM

Exactly the same.

cliff on Rosedale / March 3, 2008 10:51 AM

I'm try to be the same. I might make the occasional snarky comment, but I think that I'm probably less of a jackass online than I am in RL.

Josh / March 3, 2008 11:02 AM

It's definitely an indulgence. I rant and rave about the things I love and hate that people in the real world could care less about.

I am disciplined, though, in abstaining from ad hominem attacks. That is something I see way too much of in cyberspace.

David / March 3, 2008 11:52 AM

Really, it's just limited to posting pictures. I'm stuck in a late-nineties mindset of using the internet for research and buying stuff, not crowing about how much I love the new _________ album.

I'd also like to ask, how important is your online persona to you?

I have a friend whose MySpace page got deleted recently, and she acted like a close relative had died. I just couldn't understand that.

lost in the supermarket / March 3, 2008 12:26 PM

..I am the same on or off line...much to some people's dismay.
Have a few close friends with Jeckyll and "hide"
tendencies...One personality on line ...as in ...AGGRESSIVE.... and meek and mild off line.
...go figure....

Jill / March 3, 2008 1:28 PM

I tried to have a specific online persona, but I was ultimately too lazy to try to maintain it, so I'm just me. It's easier that way.

My blog is really important to me. My Facebook page is not so important to keep up (seeing as how I don't 'get' half of the applications on it).

Mikey / March 3, 2008 1:33 PM

My online persona is more or less the same, with the exception of online chess. I am both a sore loser and a big trash talker; in short, I'm a total dick...

Andrew / March 3, 2008 1:34 PM

That's a good question, David.

As someone who works primarily on the web, my online persona is extremely important to me. I've found that as time has gone on I'm more careful about what I say -- less likely to engage in a flamewar or go off on someone. I'm too easily googlable to be an asshole.

R / March 3, 2008 1:58 PM

I don't consider what I do online to be a persona. I only share my online profiles with the same "real life" friends. If I make a comment on a site like this, it would be the same type of thing I would say to someone's face. Maybe it's my age (30), but I try not to spread my information around too much.

charlie / March 3, 2008 2:54 PM

I'm pretty much just me. Some days are better than others.....

Andy / March 3, 2008 3:50 PM

Its's actually probably closer to the real deal than what people get when they first encounter me. They're usually getting a self-censored version.

Leelah / March 3, 2008 4:44 PM

Online me never gets sick. Real me is suffering from a fever and chills.

Other than that, pretty much the same.

mike-ts / March 3, 2008 5:33 PM

Online me is very focused, orderly, and quite eloquent. In real life, conversation is a lot less structured. I am the king of going off on a tangent, with all sorts of asides, as thoughts daisy chain in directions I had not planned.

Also, online me has a ruggedly handsome face and a sculpted physique ...

m / March 3, 2008 5:38 PM

The whole idea of an online persona makes me want to gag.

Eamon / March 3, 2008 6:55 PM

That is so something m would say.

Steven / March 3, 2008 7:53 PM

I sound a lot more mature online.

Justin / March 3, 2008 10:24 PM

The circuit runs brain-fingers with occasional stops at the mouth. I write more like I think than I speak, and this is because unlike people the computer is patient.

Still, this helps me neither chat up women nor tell off the asshole drivers who gun it down my street once they're clear of the speed bumps. Someday the six year old terrorists up the block will set one of these hotshots spinning with the half-crushed beer cans they leave in the road.

m / March 4, 2008 8:28 AM

:)

hannah / March 4, 2008 9:50 AM

My online persona seems to always be out, drinking-being drunk and having a wild time. Real me loves putting on footy-pajamas and watching Top Model... I come off as such a party monster online, but I'm a total homebody 96% of the time. It's the other 4% that'll get you.

Mac / March 4, 2008 10:35 AM

Pretty close, only drunker.

Sol / March 4, 2008 1:13 PM

I'm hella deep on the interwebs. Talented too.

In real life I'm a spazzy loser.

Ramsin / March 4, 2008 1:48 PM

I really don't know. That's for other people to say.

jasmine / March 4, 2008 5:37 PM

I am way hotter online.

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