'Self' Actualization?

Next week we explore 'online personae' so I thought I'd set the scene by opening up a few lines of discussion on the topic...starting with....whether you consider your online self IS substantially different from your offline personality. Certainly, this guy seems to think so and, it seems, would dearly like to be more like his cyberspace counterpart. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33178 . As enamoured as he is with 'HankScorpio', the creator wisely recognizes that his more humdrum meatspace self would probably have to be drawn upon in order to temper the 'literally larger than life' virtual side of his personality.

So exactly how similar / dissimilar are your online and offline personalities? We often perceive that there are quite substantial differences (usually in terms of openness, social effectiveness / flirtatiousness / assertiveness, etc)...but are these perceived differences that great? Although there are few (if any) established tools to assess differences in how we feel, think and behave online and off, I thought we might have a go at measuring the traits of the two (or three or four!) by using an online version of a five-factor personality test, firstly responding as our 'real-life' self, then as our cyber persona. Here are my results from the test when I answered as my offline self http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?o=90.00&c=69.00&e=59.00&a=14.00&n=71.00&o-raw=4.70&c-raw=3.78&e-raw=3.50&a-raw=2.89&n-raw=3.62 and here is my 'online' persona's profile. http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?o=70.00&c=21.00&e=18.00&a=6.00&n=32.00&o-raw=4.20&c-raw=2.78&e-raw=2.50&a-raw=2.56&n-raw=2.75

Ok, so I am quite different online and off...in quite a few ways. : but the major thing I noted while completing the tests was that quite a lot of the questions are virtually unanswerable in relation to my online self. I couldn't answer whether the virtual me was 'lazy' or 'efficient' as these are domains of experience that are never really tested online. Other items were, though, equally applicable to both online and offline 'me'. My artistic taste, my religious beliefs, my moodiness and assertiveness...all of these could be answered equally easily as all are commonly considered and reflected upon aspects of personality both in cyberspace and the real world. Curiously, I realised that my cyberspace persona was far more 'religious' (in a non-organised religion, spiritual way) than the meatspace me.

Have a go yourself. Just how distinctly different are you online?

Finally, here's a poser for you that I found on a blog online:
Should We Accept A Cyber Personality As A Real Person?
People who appear here may portray themselves as young, old, experienced, highly educated, green, blue, red….whatever. Let’s put aside the obvious question that they maybe up to no good for now. If that is the person that they want to put out in our little cyber corner, shouldn’t we go along and accept them totally as they want to be seen? Doesn’t everybody have a secret self, an imaginary life that they would rather live ? Isn’t that just as REAL?

Whad'ya think?