Reply to comment

It wasn't just the internet and computers that allowed people to take on personas that they never could have taken on in their personal lives. I thought about Richard Dyer's star theory. (Check out this link) It is so easy to create a 'star persona' that is completely detached from a celebrities 'real life'. I don't quite agree with that. The theory makes a boundary between the 'real' and the 'persona' which I feel is totally artificial. Whatever persona a branding or marketing company makes for a celebrity or pop star, it is somehow embedded in the person too. Even if a person just 'acts' out a persona, there is still a part of them that sticks to the 'real'.

I'm also taking a theatre class this semester and there is a part of method acting (Stanislavsky) that talks about 'finding the truth from within'. I think that this applies not just to theatre but to every persona that we embody, whether that be online or outside. Whatever role we decide to play, there will always be something there that is characteristic of who we are as a person. This can be seen (as I found out by stalking myself) through even the simplest thing like the way your format your messages or comments.