varying shades of authenticity?

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Web 2.0 & social media have created a culture where we almost have to market ourselves to be social with others. In this changed culture it is helpful to ask whether we are buying into our own brand or being our authentic selves? Fulfilling relationships with others are not possible unless we are real, brands and marketing don’t count when we are down to the wire. We need to be comfortable with our full range of possibilities: positive/negative, courageous/afraid, sad/happy, vulnerable/strong, loving/distant, kind/cruel and all the other gamut of humanness.

‘What we’re all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection.’  Oprah Winfrey (1954 – ), O Magazine

The word authentic is from Greek authentikos & means: not false or copied; genuine; real.  I have an authenticity badge on this blog in the sidebar which is from Brene Brown’s website and this is the pledge:
I couldn’t have put it better, thanks Brene.  There was a post on  the LA Times ‘Surprise: The Twitter me is not the real me‘ by Mark Milian:
Research into how personality traits are filtered through the Web, especially the new breed of short-message online services, is slim, but digital-health experts have observed numerous transformations when someone ascends the Internet‘s world stage. Whether a person is overly chatty or arrogant on Twitter doesn’t necessarily reflect on how he or she acts in the real world.
“I don’t think that you could have any type of accurate or even semi-accurate personality analysis based on what people are writing in their Twitter streams. Probably the same case goes for Facebook statuses as well,” said John Grohol, an online mental health expert and founder of PsychCentral.com.
Online, people tend to exaggerate their personas because they have much more time to revise and calculate the content they present than in spontaneous face-to-face interactions.

‘Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully.’
Frances Moore Lappe, O Magazine, May 2004
There was also a great post last year on  Matthew Fenton’s blog called ‘You’re Not a Brand’.  He suggested that there are a few arguments for why there are no personal brands:
The (mis)understanding argument
The utilitarian argument
The hierarchy argument
The relationship argument
The reality argument
Check it out to read the details of his arguments & we were involved in a stimulating conversation about this issue.  Virtual worlds encourage unreal behavior and posturing & bottom line lying.  We are good at fooling ourselves & our lives on the net can be disconnected from who we are really.  Relationships require authentic meetings to develop & grow to their fullest potential.  What has been your experience, let me know in the comments.
Check out this very funny video with one of my fav comedians Eddie Izzard, he suggests that animals could possibly have other talents (& I guess we could brand them too?)  It is well worth the 10minutes of your time for a good laugh, enjoy.

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