In the continuing email discussion with my group psychotherapists, one of my friends observed that we have multiple identities, but one life. It is a great way of looking at things and illustrates an issue that the formation of our online identities poses. Writers often recognize that their words can have lives of their own, and sometimes, these separate lives can get out of hand.

We present ourselves in different ways based upon different contexts. We emphasize aspects of our lives that we think our interlocutors will find most interesting or appealing, it all takes place in the moment. Yet when we describe ourselves online, people interact with those words independent of the original moment or the contents’ original context. Posting a scantily clad picture of oneself holding a bottle of beer might be okay for the context of having fun with friends, yet that picture may find its way into a different context, like a job interview, where in most cases it is less acceptable.

Calling school administrators ‘Douche Bags’ may be perfectly acceptable in a context of venting amongst friends about something stupid people in the school administration have recently done, but is probably less acceptable at a school board meeting or a candidates forum. In either case, it should be viewed as protected free speech, but that’s a whole different issue.

The here and now moments of our lives are all that we really have to work with. They draw on our past and they shape our future. As our words and pictures find new permanence and searchability in this age of digital media, the words of Walt Whitman, written over a century ago, find new meaning.

And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.