Am I my name?
Am I my passion and hobbies?
Am I my job or my reputation?
Am I my country of origin?
Am I my culture?
Am I the accumulation of my past experiences?
Am I my thoughts, my words, and what I say?
Am I what I tell you about me?
Am I what you think about me?
Am I a collection of some social terminologies?
Or am I a free earthly entity?
What defines my identity?
Who would I be if there was no society?
Who am I at my soul?
Do I need to be defined?
Is there space for fluidity?
I have just started using Steemit and I was wondering whether I should use my real name on my channel or not. I heard this platform was about content creation, and I noticed that most people create their posts under their real name, so all the merit goes to them, not to some anonymous user, who cannot be verified.
I noticed that most users have an ‘introduceyourself’ post, where they introduce themselves by stating their name, passion, hobbies, interests, jobs, qualifications, the place where they live or come from, and explaining what kind of posts they plan to create in the future etc. And even though I sometimes like to watch such content, and hear about likeminded people and their lives, I myself feel uncomfortable doing such introduction. Describing myself with some bullet points of some social terms feels like such a burden. It feels like a weird nonsense of a social construct. By telling who I am, I am putting myself in a box inevitably, whereas we change everyday, and describing ourselves in social terms is not necessarily what we are at our core, deep inside our soul.
So I felt uncomfortable using my real name and introducing myself in a ‘proper way’ on this site. I thought I might use this site as an experimentation in writing and content creation, and starting from a blank slate, where I can be anonymous, gives me a sense of freedom, where I can be whatever I want to be. Where I am not hindered by my name, my social ‘identity’, my qualifications and talents, and my online history like websites, blogs, and posts elsewhere. Even though that could be a beneficial form of self-expression, to connect with like-minded people on a more personal level. But I wanted to remain incognito for now, and enjoy the freedom of this blank slate.
And this made me start thinking about what identity really is? What are we if we take away all the social framework that society has built for us? After all, the social constructions are not ours. We have inherited them, they have been passed down to us, we have been indoctrinated into them; but until we at least question them and take some alternatives into consideration, we can’t even say that they are really ours.
So, who are you if you are considering yourself outside of the box of any social constraints? Who are you at your soul? How would you describe yourself without using any social terms like ‘I’m a photographer’, ‘I’m a teacher’, ‘I study finance’ etc.? Do your social achievements encapsulate your true self and identity? Do you associate with your given name? What name would you give yourself if it was not down to your parents to stick a name on you? What is your true identity?
Written by Nightcreature
Photo source: Pixabay