Hannah Montana and Identity on the Web

I remember when I first discovered that Hannah Montana and Miley Ray Cyrus were the same person. I was watching happened to catch an episode one day and was so confused when the same girl was called two different names. Then, my wife sang the lyrics to “The Best of Both Worlds,” and it became clear. She wanted to keep her rock star life and normal day to day life private, save for close friends and family.

After reading Louis Gray’s post How One Would-be Web Friend Turned Into a Stalker In Months, I felt extremely uncomfortable. What if this situation happened to me? Am I doing anything on the web that puts my family or I at risk?

One of the problems with the web, as opposed to reality, is that you can’t tell when people are shady. The guy with a beard and big dark sunglasses with a weird smirk is someone you would probably walk away from in real life, but on the web he may be able to portray himself as a friendly ice cream truck driver and lover of puppies who collects rusty staples. Although not the best example, you get my point.

Often times, its easy to look at someone’s profile and get an idea about the kind of person they are. I’d like to think that crazy people are less successful at making themselves appear normal than actual normal people, but sadly, i know this is not the case. I recently questioned my own stalker rating when on my way to pick up an AC unit from a twitter friend who offered to let me borrow it. She left it on the porch, and it was about 9 pm when I picked it up. I wondered if I should knock, or call, or anything to let her know I had taken it. As I was afraid of scaring her or sending the wrong message, I settled on a text message and a tweet. I seriously hope this was not viewed as an effort to be unsocial.

A couple months ago, a friend came over to our apartment and showed me stickam for the first time. He set up his macbook pro, and in minutes we were streaming live on the web. I watched the numbers steadily increase, as we continued our normal conversation. I was then introduced to someone that wanted to help bring an idea of mine to fruition, as my friend talked me up as the head of a crazy cool hip new company. I thought what are we doing? I’m not this guy, won’t he be upset if he finds out? And then, it clicked.

“We’re in Japan right now,” I said. “You should come if you ever get the chance.”

The room was abuzz as people thought we were actually in Japan. And for a moment, I knew what it was like to be Hannah Montana.

I used to view the internet as a place to escape the real world. Through videogames, meeting unknown people, and using screennames that only hint at what you’re really about. But when twitter came along, it made it easy to meet new people, online, as myself. If they found me or what I had to say interesting, they could follow me, and vice versa. About this time, multiple members of my family and church started joining facebook. I let the invites sit for a couple days as I questioned wether I wanted my online life to be seen by everyone, but then I realized that this is bringing us one step closer to an actual world wide web of connectivity, and the fact that my family wanted to join was amazing.

I really don’t want to rely on a false identity to share my ideas or content on the web, as it really seems like we’re moving towards a more internet friendly world, where everyone can be themselves and find a place that feels like home. After writing a couple paragraphs about how I plan to protect my privacy, I don’t even know if thats a good idea… How do you protect yourself when interacting with people you’ve never actually met?