The recent explosion in online social networking has seriously brought into question the new dynamics of human interaction.. In much of online socialization, a distinct contrast exists between the personí¢â‚¬â„¢s real personality and their digital persona. Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s this tension between the private and the public, and between isolation and connectivity, that creates new forms of social consciousness.

The Internet has usually been stereotyped to be habitated by people with lower-than-average self-confidence hiding behind virtual avatars. These avatars permit users to design (or in extreme cases, invent) pictures of themselves online. Nowhere is this more obvious than on the hugely popular social networking site MySpace. While it may not be online dating per se that drives people to MySpace, users of the site project the best-looking, most intelligent, edgy, í¢â‚¬Ëœcoolí¢â‚¬â„¢, daring, racy, promiscuous or adorably nerdy, version of themselves. The aim is decidedly to impressi the multitude of digital (but not faceless) drones that congregate on this dimensionless networking plateau. Aside from the inherent falsity in manufacturing oneí¢â‚¬â„¢s digital persona down to its very minutiae, there is also a transparency that sometimes shatters the boundaries between the private and public dimensions. Often, what happens is a re-imagining of reality due to the absolute volume of (mis)information any user can access throughout their so-called í¢â‚¬Ëœextendedí¢â‚¬â„¢ network. Studies have shown that the higher the interactivity of an Internet site, the more likely it is that users will produce "false memory" (ie, recollection of attributes that were not demonstrated but that were sufficiently plausible for users to believe they were true) . Though these studies have mostly focused sites hawking consumer products, it is not a huge leap to apply this phenomenon to MySpace, where the products are you and Ií¢â‚¬”or, at least, our digital personalities.

This suggests that the notion of private soon gives way to a public perception that may not necessarily reflect the nature of the social interaction that occurs in real life. This author has witnessed firsthand the dissolution of friendships, romantic liaisons and even professional relationships due to reactions towards digital innuendo exchanged between MySpace profiles and the people manning them. For all the benign social and cultural qualities of networking sites such as MySpace, there is clearly a dark side to the phenomenon.

Let us use í¢â‚¬Å“Danielí¢â‚¬  as an example. Daniel is extremely social and has a friend list of just over 200 people. He is active in the Montreal music scene and works in a busy restaurant. Daniel changes his Top Friends list depending on which girl he is dating, and often posts public comments to friends or lovers that could have easily been private messages. In addition, many of Danielí¢â‚¬â„¢s top friends have met each other in real life and some of them have forged new friendships or dated through that connection.By contrast, í¢â‚¬Å“Susannaí¢â‚¬  has a small group of friends that she has maintained since junior high school. Over the years she met new friends through studies in forestry at Simon Fraser University, some of whom are on MySpace. Recently she broke up with her boyfriend of five years; since then she has been approached by strangers or acquaintances online that she either has never met or only knows through someone in her Top Friends list. Susanna updates her profile a few times weekly, sometimes even daily, and often sends her friends private messages telling them of amusing websites and video links; for the most part she keeps a disproportionate amount of her interaction online. Adding to her relative í¢â‚¬Ëœisolationí¢â‚¬â„¢ is the fact that she works from home.

But even though they may appear similar online, ití¢â‚¬â„¢s clear that Susanna and Daniel exist in totally different í¢â‚¬Ëœrealtimeí¢â‚¬â„¢ social worlds. While this social mask might be useful in some online situations, its basic problem is that it distorts a person's self-image, making authentic intimate connections that much harder, diminishing the ability of people to interact genuinely with each other. In such a way, this digital phenomenon is more deleterious than traditional notions of isolationism, and represents a duplicitous confusion of authenticity and virtual life.

All of these issues bring into focus a greater question: do these clashes of perception and reality erode our notions of ourselvesf, memory, and connection - concepts that are at the core of human experience. Or, put more simply, is this new online social networking a (My)space for authentic individualism or one of collective digital assimilation?

Ií¢â‚¬â„¢ll let you know after I check my MySpace account.