I interviewed one of my best friends, who, I will mention in advance, does not have multiple personalities. She simply embraces personas of characters out of comic books, cartoons, animes, even to real life people, that resembles her. It really is not that hard to adopt a persona either. Although I wouldn’t pick personas as randomly as what I linked, but she would find someone or something that would do things and say things as she would. And often she tells me who I resemble, and usually our friendship looks like a yin and yang, “opposites attract” kind of friendship.

Eevees: She’s Umbreon, I’m Sylveon. Adventure Time: She’s Marceline, I’m P.B. Sailor Moon: She’s Mercury, and I’m Venus.

She answers the questions as:

1. I’ve used almost everything in the past, but now I balance out Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.
2. I have accounts with my alias Spencer ____ ___ to avoid people finding me and to keep family separate from friends. My Instagram and Tumblr also use the alias “Spencer”. Plot twist: Her (yes, her) real name is not Spencer.
3. Most of my accounts are still under Spencer, but within those accounts I get friends who tag me with something that reminds them of me. From there, I act as myself, but link myself to the persona of what they’re tagging me in. So for example, we were tagged in a post about the different Eevees from Pokemon. I am Umbreon, the dark eevee, and you are Sylveon, the fairy eevee.
4. Besides being “Spencer,” I do have other accounts for social media, but those act as my escape when even being “Spencer” doesn’t stop people from finding me. But again, my personality stays consistent, but I guess the way I write changes in formality depending on my mood?

I’d like to argue that having personas do not equate to have different identities, in person or online. From this mini interview, it shows that she is still herself, but she sees herself in the forms of characters or people that acts like her identification. From that, she is able to find ways to find a common interest among her friends, even with me when we first met. This relates to the quote “Online communicators became more skilled in expressing themselves in ways that were variously more conversational, clear and conciliatory. (Athique, p.69)” When I had to mention that she was someone who does not have multiple personality disorder, it is because it seems like it’s overwhelming for her to take on so many personas, at least 10 personas that I can recall from the top of my head. All of which have a common trait, physically or personality-wise or even aesthetically. Turkle gave herself two different personas as French-speaking Sherry, who is her own person, and English-speaking Sherry, who is timid and shy, which came to be because of her mother’s death (Turkle, p.209). This contrasts my friend, who stays consistent in her many personas. Although I never really questioned why she became “Spencer,” despite having an average name, she’s still my best friend. One person, two names, many personas. (cheesy I know)

So with this I end:

1. Does having a persona change your perception on having different identities, in real life or online?
2. If you found a character, celebrity, anything that resembles you, how would you determine this and would you associate yourself to that persona in real life?