Peter: my identity

How I display my identity in person 

showing several
aspects of my identity

One of my identities is that I'm a teacher, and my clothes display this identity. When I'm at work, whether in a classroom or online, such as in a Zoom class, I always wear a plain white shirt. I think it's appropriate for my identity as a teacher. But in my life outside of work, I also always wear button-up shirts with collars. This could be because I'm getting old, which would be another aspect of my identity, but in fact, I've dressed this way since I was at university about 40 years ago. I feel comfortable in slightly formal clothes, which I guess shows that part of my personality is to be a bit formal, and my my chosen clothes show this. I have not even owned a T-shirt for more than 30 years! (Thank you Keet for that very useful question to give me this idea to write here. 

My tone of voice tells people, I hope, that I'm friendly and generally relaxed, but what I say can sometimes be serious and emphasize the importance of being logical. When I was in high school, mathematics was my favourite subject, and I did well at it. I also studied mathematics for three years at university. My major was philosophy, where one of my main areas of interest was logic, which went well with my interest in mathematics. Today, if I'm in a discussion, and even in some of my classes, I can be a bit pushy that people give logical reasons for what they say. It doesn't worry me what their ideas are, but I like strong, logical reasons to be given, and this fondness for logical thinking is an important part of my personality, which is itself a major part of my identity, of who I am. 

And I think I've written enough on this aspect of my identity. 

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How I display my identity online

On my personal Facebook page, I use my real name and images. I don't post very much. Mainly photos with very short comments about what I'm doing in my life. And after ten or more years on Facebook, I now have 32 friends. They are all people I know in my life outside of Facebook. Because they are close friends and relatives, they might even be interested in the meals I post about, or my shopping trips with Ea and his dad, and my thought about current issue. 

other sides of me

However, I also have another online identity that shows a very different me. One of my hobbies is joining online comments and discussions in articles published in a few of the newspapers and magazines I subscribe to. For that I use a screen name unrelated to my real name, although my avatar does include a real photograph of my face. My avatar is of the cartoon character Felix the Cat. He was very popular when I was a child more than 50 years ago, and is still fairly well known, although some young people who recognize the image might not know who the character is. I liked his bag of magic tricks and his mischievous attitude. Sometimes I like to be mischievous, like giving strong arguments to support a position I know will annoy someone. But the photograph in my avatar is really my head. I made Felix punch me to show that I'm happy for other people to disagree with me and present their supporting arguments. 

from the Vergilius Romanus 
manuscript, 5th century

My screen name is a little more complex: it's the first two words of a line in one of my favourite poems by Virgil that refers to the author of what really is my favourite Latin poem. I don't expect most people to know the reference, but it does show things about my identity: that I studied Latin at university, that I love philosophy (the poet Lucretius's de rerum natura is really a series of philosophical arguments written as poetry. It's brilliant.), and that I enjoy being a bit controversial. 

After uploading the image for Virgil's Georgics, I was tempted to write about my own rural background to fill in that part of my identity, but I think I've given enough details here. 

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Whether my online identity is accurately communicated 

I don't think that my online identity represents me incorrectly, but it is incomplete. Although the few photos and comments I post on my personal Facebook page are all real, they give a very biased view of me, one that emphasizes the fun, cheerful things. I do occasionally post unhappy things, but those are certainly in a minority, far smaller than their quantity in my life. Similarly, on my other Facebook pages, such as my AUA Facebook page, everything is true and correct, but only presents the aspect of my life that is related to my work as a teacher. I don't think this is a problem: professional pages are supposed to relate only relevant content, not the person's personal life, and my other Facebook page similarly reflects on the aspects of my identity that are relevant to that: it should present limited aspects of my identity.

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