Erika Pearson’s All the World Wide Web’s a Stage: The Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks concludes that “In essence, online performative space is a deliberately playful space. The fluidity and self–conscious platforms of performance allow individuals and networks of users to play with aspects of their presentations of self…”

So lets just ignore the number of innuendo jokes that could be made about playing with yourself and focus on the ways that we can play with our online identities.

One of the stresses of setting up a new social media account is the number of decisions that are required.

• Location Well, I live in Canada, but I’m from the US, and I don’t really know where I will end up permanently…this is just a hard time in my life to know “where” I am.
• Age Real age? How about January 1, what ever year makes me legal?
• E-mail Do I want to be contacted by your company? No…oh wait I have to verify to use the app.
• Google NO NO NO, do not link to my Google Account. No one needs to know.

So after intense soul searching, you normally get the the fun part- the part where you start forming an identity by creating a name and an avatar.

Alright, so my name for this blog was my attempt at being creative. It made me realize that for me creativity is equal to alliteration. Maybe not the best strategy. So I went on a hunt to find library blogs with great names. Here’s what I found:

Annoyed Librarian: Whatever It Is, I’m Against It

Information Tyrannosaur: Top of the Information Food Chain

Confessions of a Science Librarian

I like them because they are a bit quirky. Here’s the thing I’ve had this name kicking around in my head for when I feel comfortable starting a blog as an information professional: Turn the Paige

The part that I am stuck on is how to represent myself through an avatar. I’m not comfortable with photographs of just my face. But, I do like caricatures and I think they provide a unique way of showing a person without…showing a person. For example, here is my avatar from my Xbox Live account. She just looks so much more cheerful and professional than I do in real life.

In the future, I want the space I create to be fun and engaging. I need to provide a space which is playful to encourage and foster participation. Clearly this will be developed through the content, but I think a good place to start is with the basic aspects.

In a time long ago with dial up modems and having super teenage angst at my Mom for picking up the phone and disconnecting me, I used-

• AOL instant messenger- I had the full on profile and the little dancing icon that was were expressions of myself and everything thirteen year old Paige new to be true and right about the world. I believe I stopped using it my first year of university.
• MySpace- I spent the majority of my time customizing my profile and realizing that the majority of my top eight (?) friends did not include me in their top friends. Also, I thought it was so cool that you could put a song on your profile. I will not regale you with the terrible music selections I made.
• Chatrooms- when did these stop being a thing? what’s everybody’s a/s/l?

In more modern times (sin modems), I use some social media personally and have been recruited to do a bit of social media professionally.

Personally, I still maintain a Facebook profile (above is my current profile pic), but it’s mostly become a chat interface. It has been a saving grace for talking to friends across international borders. I think I have a twitter. I do not know the handle (or even if that is the correct terminology) and I don’t think I have ever posted. I have pinterest only because two of my friends (who are in this class) have pinterest. I wanted to be cool and find recipes and quirky craft ideas! In reality mine are memes I find funny and stuff about gaming. Like twitter, I think I might have an instagram. Just checked my phone. I have the app. I have no clue what to do with it.

YouTube and Twitch.tv take up a fair amount of my screen time. However, I rarely comment and almost consider this more traditional media consumption.

I also have a Linkedin which I do a really poor job of maintaining when I am not actively seeking employment. It is one of those sites for which I can never remember the password.

Professionally, I was recruited to blog a bit for my old employer. I think the main criteria for bloggers was by default anyone who had heard of a blog. One thing I found very confusing about these posts was I was never sure of the intended audience. Was I blogging to my colleagues, other industry members, or our customers?

After coming to library school, and being bombarded with social media from various information organizations, I’m definitely in the column of needed to be convinced that a social media presence provides an adequate ROI for the institution.

I have never used a personal dashboard. I am in the process of setting up Netvibes in the hopes that it will let me keep track of the postings from this class. I am not confident as I tend to drop apps and programs that don’t resonate with me rather quickly.