The "Public" Face

Greetings,

The discussion that follows is one which I have briefly touched on previously. In that post it was about how the Internet made us anonymous, or at least had the potential for doing this for us (https://historicalsocialpolitical.blogspot.com/2018/08/internet-connection-cloak-of-anonymity.html). This article is, in a way, an examination of the opposite, the "public" face which is presented, and how this can affect our interactions with other people.

There are two faces which we have, a "public" face which we present to the world, and a "private" face which we keep for our close friends and family. There are similarities between these two faces, but there are often differences as well. We get to choose what parts of ourselves we present to the public sphere, for the most part, and we get to choose what parts we hide, though erosions in privacy are making this more and more difficult. There are clearly places where our "public" face and our "private" face will blur, and how much these blur is most often our choice.

There are people who will automatically have a "public" face that is known by people, these people are what are known today as celebrities. However, anyone who interacts with the public also has a "public" face which will become known and attached to certain things. This may not be on the same scale as these "celebrities" but they will still become known. Hopefully they will become known for the right things.

A person who makes statements and stands with regard to certain things, will become known for these things. The more that they make statements about these things the more that people will have an expectation for them to be of a certain character. A person who makes statements about human rights, gender equality, and other political matters is going to be expected to also be acting according to those same statements, even in their personal life. As soon as they are seen to be "soft" on one area, which relates to another where they have made some grand statement in any way, their credibility will be damaged. Care needs to be taken with what we are seen to be standing for as it can come back to us, the Internet has a long memory.

Some will claim that they have a different personality or face for different interactions due to the nature of those interactions. A person thus may act brashly, arrogantly, with interactions on-line, but then may be friendly and considerate in-person. The problem is that if all people have seen is the former interaction, because they have never met the person in-person this is all that they are going to be known as. You may claim that, "But that was on-line." It was you, it was your interactions. You cannot separate your "face" on-line from your "face" in-person. Things to distance you from your on-line "face" will only work for so long, people will eventually find out, it is better that you treat people on-line how you would in-person.

The "public" face which you present should be one that you would want to meet and interact with. Have consideration for what you are going to put out there, because it is almost guaranteed that if you write something that you are going to regret, it will haunt you for ages afterward. This "public" face should be even a deeper consideration for those who would want to spread information, or attempt to sell their wares of any kind. Good-will can be upset quite severely through the ill-considered interactions of your "public" face with people.

How often have we seen the popularity of politicians and celebrities damaged by ill-considered statements on their parts? The same can happen to us if we are not careful. Consider carefully whether you really want to post that statement before you press the "post" or "send" button. Once it is out there you can't have it back.

Cheers,

Henry.