We Are Who We Are

If you like to people watch as I do. (I tell people I'm observational) Online Social Networks are like a playground. I remember before I joined a particular online social network I was hesitant; because to me it seemed like too much of an invasion of my personal space.

Then with some encouragement by some people that I couldn't contact other than through this medium, I joined! And a whole world opened up to me.There were people that before I never would have talked to in regular life that if you were to ask them, we're best friends. (I probably still wouldn't talk to them outside cyberspace) What it has allowed me to do is observe who people are, who they pretend to be, who they want to be and who they wish they were. But I watch this global interaction and wonder how many people see what I see.

Apparently cyberspace doesn't stop us from being who we are. If we crave acceptance, we're happy to become what is expected of us. I've watched people get upset over the simple mention of their names. I've seen people get into arguments that didn't originally involve them all because they're "cool" with some person that once again, if they're like me under normal circumstances they never would associated themselves with originally.

What online social networks offer is a blank slate to creatively introduce yourself to a new sphere of people. And it's interesting how people have used and abused that opportunity. I've seen bandwagon jumpers, internet cliques, thug wannabes, groupies, freaks. At some point, I was trying to figure if I was back in high school. I remember high school and after a few years away from that place, something happened. I GREW UP!

I no longer call my "best friend" to back me up, when I start an argument with someone for talking to my boyfriend or when I get upset with him for talking to my sworn enemy. When someone doesn't like something I've said, I don't get back at them by raining down a slew of insults and requesting back up. I don't instigate unnecessary confrontations with people that I barely know because they said something I didn't like.

I've grown up, so if I don't feel it necessary to add profanity to my name to show how BAD ASS I am. I don't have to become the angry baby mama cliche, or the bitchy black woman that we've become accustomed to see in the media.  I've left behind the days of just saying things to belong.

I don't really think my social experiment will ever be complete, but I'm sure that the showstoppers, down for whatever girls, the unhappy, the unfulfilled, the angry for no reason, the attention seekers, the needy will always be around and always prove that we are who we are or at least who we want to appear to be!

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Ali Cole In Print or B.A.D. PR
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