Image via WikipediaAre we really no more or no less than our social media profile?

Vator.TV has a fascinating interview with Esther Dyson about Twitter, social networking, and how it might just be like sex. Rather than sharing DNA we share Information, and with recent polls stating that 46% of us think the internet is more important than sex, it is something to think about.

Is the image we portray on the internet the real us, or the unrealized idealized us? While we all want to put our best foot forward and be seen as important, the internet breaks down those barriers. I know that when I call a company complaining about a service I’ll be ramped through 6 poor help desk folks and then eventually hung up on. But when I write a blog entry about the same issue, I’ll get someone dropping me a note in my comments about how to fix it. That is something that is fairly powerful, as we can’t get help in person; companies are out there monitoring any use of their name, and often respond in amazing ways that will never happen on the phone.

The other interesting and thought provoking part of the interview was about the idea of transparency, where we are seeing less hypocrisy, but more incidents of people behaving badly on the internet. I know that when I interview someone I have already combed through the internet looking for things they have said or done on line. Usually the conversation gets more interesting after that, and you can find out much more about what they were thinking at the time. I also tend to shy away from people who have a track record of being hostile or belligerent on line long before they ever get to the interview. Most employers will honestly tell you the same thing, the internet is a great barometer for finding out what people think, what sets them off, and how they behave in public. A steady state of bad behavior on line will keep a lot of folks from getting hired. So will blogs and other information you have on the internet if the HR person, the hiring manager, or anyone involved in the hire does not agree with what you are saying.

While the internet is a place to establish presence, the good thing about a lot of the things we do on the internet good and bad helps establish that presence. The even better part is that depending on what you choose, you can choose what your public persona is going to look like in ways that were unimaginable 10 years ago and not even thought of 20 years ago. What people do with that is important, and there are systems like Reputation Management Firms to help you clear up some of the more idiotic things you might have done in the past. The idea of having some form of good behavior to aspire to can be seen in many of the popular bloggers and internet personalities on line. There are all sorts of folks on the internet, what you want to be is probably already on line as an example. The presence you create could be better or worse than you really are. That is one of the wonders of the internet, we can aspire to be more than we are, and in effect live that life on line when it is so hard to do in real life.

Tags: esther dyson, interview, vator.tv, cool