Informations and contacts everyone I want to talk with or learn about,first of all. And it’s a chance that we all can use. It’s easy! How could I learn more about you, as an exemple, if I couldn’t meet you personnaly…how could I tell you what I’m thinking about whatever…It is a fabulous tool to have a kind of contact with almost who I want.
Your blog is the first that I try to follow currently and it makes me discover a lot of possibilities and that’s what I was expecting for…possibilities.
Facebook…I’m on but don’t use it to communicate with my friends but if someone is looking for me, I think it’s an easy way to join a lot of people. And I don’t use myspace. I think that using most of the communication and informations tools that internet suggest to us becomes a problem for many people.
It depends on what you’re expecting…possibility to have a virtual life…the line is thin sometimes. Expectations are differents to each of us but what they are, they shouldn’t cut you from the real life.
Marielou.

As someone who works during the day on identifying new and improved ways to deliver educational content to healthcare professionals and randomly blogs about pop culture at night, I feel that there can be good in both being up front about who you are and sometimes being a bit vague. In my professional dealings, the more clear we are with identifying who we are, what we represent, where we get the medical information we are sharing, it’s absolutely necessary to be up front and to be very authentic. It improves the quality of our audience as well, our clear introduction of who we are and what we are trying to do quickly weeds out inappropriate audience members. However, on my personal blog where I like to talk about useless drivel (for the most part), I prefer to maintain a bit of anonymity, mostly because of the possibility of my worlds crossing over in an unpleasant way.

@jamie,
i think useless drivel is great if it comes from the heart:)
i dont think authenticity means deep and meaningful.

All what becomes like the run of the mill, loses an interest for me. I don’t like Facebook and all of its copies, don’t know why exactly, maybe serendipity…wherever in the Net I use my real name. Names change, shapes change, environment changes, everything changes, but the essense remains!
Authenticity can’t be “what they want” it’s always “what I want”. Our life is full of riddles. why all should be simple?

I agree authenticity is important but even on FaceBook I find that many people still post an image of themselves on the web. We teach each other though socialization and media that a certain image is important. We spend money on and celebrate art that appears technically perfect. When it all comes down to it what I really enjoy is gritty, raw, insecure or just plain honest. It’s when we “fail” that we truly show our humanity. I wish we could see more of it. Maybe then people could give up the façade and just appreciate themselves and others for how beautifully imperfect we are.

On a secondary note I don’t think using a real name necessarily leads to authenticity. There are privacy issues on the web to remember. I use my proper name for business things and my middle names for web chatting, etc. (in “real” life I would answer to either). But as someone looking for traditional office type work I don’t want to be Googled before I even get an interview (and yes they are widely doing that these days). That said I do believe that in either case I am always authentic.

But to answer your question (finally) I look for honesty, but I fear I find far too little of it. Maybe I’m just too cynical?

Erinn ElizabethLouise

I look for a great discussion on things I care about. It’s also nice to see what other people are talking about…what is maybe relevant. Sometimes it could be something way off base that sparks my interest. I think as long as someone is speaking their mind…it’s authentic. Even the silliest things can have relevance (or not). Maybe that’s why I enjoy the political process so much LOL. All the little things that pundits discuss..all the social interactions that happen. The guessing and the naysaying. Predicting the future…learning from our past. The joys of overcoming. It’s a wonderful thing.
@David. I agree that Facebook is more authentic than Myspace. That’s why I spend more time on the former.

Sorry for the second post, but I was just listening to an Allison Crowe song and I think some of her lyrics sum up how I see the web and my interaction with it.

A collection of truths strategically placed
often saying what I think but not often what I mean
I need to see reality so I know that it’s not just a dream

My experience with Facebook was negative. It started out as family, friends, daughter’s and co-workers. It took one person finding me after many years and getting raunchy quite publicly that led me away. Quite frankly i have worked too long and hard for what my life is that I have to have some degree of protection. I honestly do not want the crotch fixated worming their way in. I have only been active on myspace since September and have had no such issues.
I don’t worry about the name thing much. I use Stormy because it is my nickname but I believe there is authenticity in breaking the labels that are presented to us by our parents, through the education system, the bullies ta school, the media and to create and live by our true identity why not. Who am I to judge a person on their name really? But I do have the right which I exercise on who I let in and who I don’t.
I have learned to not expect much, life changes every moment, so anything great that happens is a life bonus, and the struggles make you stronger. Moment by moment it goes. I guess i like to go online to expand my world, learn knew things, and know more about what is out there. I also like to study and since I have little hope in every being able to afford my psych degree, I do it on my own so I can do my job to to the best of my ability.