Daily Dose of Denise – Identity

What do you think? – Johari Window.  (Thanks gipsy!)

OK I posted this late yesterday shortly after listening to Nancy’s Northern Voice session so of course thoughts about identity and us/them and community were rumbling around in my head.  I had this really long half-written post about Nancy and community, then I spotted this little toy on Amber’s blog.  And poof, there went my post.  I can’t finish it because this is better.  And more interesting than my proposing marriage and pledging to love chocolate forever if she’ll have me.

This little Johari Window toy is really really interesting to play with.  If you can find someone you know in "real life" to join you in it, it’s interesting.  If you can find someone whose blog you’ve read for a long time to join you, it’s also interesting.  And if you can find someone whose blog you’ve only just started reading to join you, it’s interesting too.  See, interesting!

How do people see you?  People who know you well, in real life – people who know you well, online only – people who don’t know you at all?   This little box, with a handful of words says an awful lot. 

The first one I participated in was Gipsy’s – I’ve only just started reading her blog, (since January, when she first posted on Blogher).  So I don’t know her well at all.  I created one and two people who know me pretty well have responded and two more people who used names I don’t recognize have responded.  Then I joined Chalice Chick’s Johari Window and found the responses for her interesting, too. (I’ve been reading CC’s blog for more than six months but I don’t know her in person.)

How do people see me – and how do I see other people?  What sort of identity am I presenting here? In other online areas? In offline areas?  What do I see when I read gipsy’s blog?  When I read CC’s?  Why do I think these things? Feel these things?

Tons of questions.  No answers.  Or too many answers?  That’s what identity is, to me.  Tons of questions, tons of answers.  Sometimes the two intersect, sometimes they don’t.  Identity is like that.

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5 thoughts on “Daily Dose of Denise – Identity”

  1. There you go – an extension, a next step. Once you’ve got some ideas about how you see yourself and others see you then it’s time to fill in the gaps with the rest of the labels. Chocolate for Nancy and coffee for me.

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