October 14, 2009
I remember the good ‘ole days when we let our relationships define us.
Nowadays relationships are disposable but our Web sites live forever as long as we keep renewing our domain registration.
Actually, it’s our Web addresses that live forever and we can redo our site’s design or content at any old time to favor our fancy, whim or reinvention.
My site’s design recently came under reinvention as I redesigned my lifestyle. Gone are the days when my site solely reflects the Aspetuck region of Connecticut. Nowadays, I want to be more global and so I redid my site to reflect that notion.
But, who knows, one day it might be more locally-focused again. Or it might be, well, anything…anything is possible with a few bits of code.
Changing the design of your site can be akin to telling something to your friends. It makes it real. Once you put it online anyone – that’s *anyone* - can view it as long as they’re not on your domain’s Deny list.
It’s easier to become who we want to be online because it’s all controllable. Yet, in real life (or IRL as people say online), there’s a certain personal quality, a look, a touch, a tone, that cannot be duplicated online. There is something real that is lacking online. And thank goodness for that!
On the one hand, we can still feel a bit anonymous online, but on the other hand it is global and if our name is on it… Well, we do hope to reach more people, not less, with our online presence but that could mean it’s more important to be who we really are and not some manufactured persona.
Whatever we might feel about the Internet it has played an integral role in defining our society, how we communicate and a bit of our lexicon. It is relevant but perhaps our presence online, like anything else, should only be considered a little piece of each of us.
