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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank
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To: Solon who wrote (58846)9/19/2002 11:03:05 AM
From: The Philosopher  Read Replies (1) of 82486
 
The attempt to change an alternate name (an alias) into the actual biological entity
behind the alias,

That is not what is being said. At least not in my involvement in the discussion.

What is being said is that the biological person using the alias presents a mask to the digital world in much the same way as the physical person presents a mask to the physical world. The person may create an entirely Walter Mitty character which has little if any connection with their real life. For example, a person may in real life be a shoe salesman with three dull children who lived all their life in Fargo, North Dakota and has never travelled outside the state, but may on the internet present himself as a college professor beset by adoring students seeking to exchange sexual favors for higher grades, who is in great demand as a lecturer and travels all over the world lecturing at the most prestigious universities. If the person is clever enough, using information gleaned from a lifetime of reading Readers Digest and looking at the pictures in National Geographic and a judicious use of Internet resources they might well be able to project this character as though it really were theirs.

This is the context in which I, at least, use the term persona, and I think it is a reasonable application of the word to the new venue of the internet.
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