Bridging Your Real-Life and Virtual Identity

By Justin Poythress - Posted at Reformation 21:

When we were young, my mother, undaunted at having sons instead of daughters, read us some Betsy Tacy books. My mind wandered during many of those hours, dreaming about being a pirate or an NFL running back (neither of which have yet materialized). Yet some stories stuck with me. One was when Betsy began attending a new school. She was thrilled by the prospect of reinventing herself. Her schoolmates would be dazzled by this fascinating, sophisticated, and mysterious new girl. No one would know anything about her except what she presented. Gradually, however, her project crumbled. Betsy receded to being merely. . . Betsy.

There’s nothing new about yearning for a fresh slate, for the power to craft a new self, to conjure a dream-me into reality. Many popular video games center on fulfilling the fantasy of character creation. The internet beckons you to be like Betsy at her new school—to try on a new hobby here, a new cause there. But in today’s increasingly digital world, sustained anonymity is less and less feasible. After all, the internet’s power to conceal comes with a flip side: its power to reveal.

In the virtual world, people will find it as difficult to live a double life online as they do in real life. That is to say, it won’t work for any extended length of time. You’ll be found out and exposed. As Jesus taught us in Luke 12:3, “Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.” That is to say, you won’t be able to keep a real-life Mr. Hyde separate from your online Dr. Jekyll, or vice versa.

Continue here.