Whether or not we realize it, the more we participate in online social media, the more we are lifestreaming. While the benefits of connecting with the people around us on the Internet are significant the more we share the more we realize that what we share has different audiences.
In a
recent post by Steve Rubel, he discussed the art of maintaining two distinct online personas, one public and one private. The public persona is managed and driven via services such as Twitter that generally make information available without authentication. Services such as Facebook on the other hand, can be used to target lifestreaming data to a controlled audience.
While many say that one should seek to merge these personas and not worry about the audience, this does not mimic reality. Nearly everyone's actions are self-goverened depending on their immediate group. Things said within a family may not be appropriate for sharing with colleagues. What is shared with friends may not be necessary to share with family members. Structuring our online presence in this same way feels natural and follows existing social constructs.
That being said, many online services do not make this separation easy to manage, if available at all. Facebook has tools available for managing privacy and grouping contacts, but the implementation seems a little complicated and incomplete. Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm, FriendFeed and the like however encourage openness.
My efforts to evolve my lifestream are in their infancy and I have much to explore and learn. Moving forward I will be looking for ways to effectively manage these multiple personalities. Any suggestions?
