Fractured online identity?

Or split personality? Christopher Long, associate professor of Philosophy at PSU and soon to be associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, is wondering how to manage his online presence. Should he have one unified identity @cplong? Or two or more, such as I have (@targuman and @shcdean)?

My comments were as follows.

I have two because I do try and keep my @shcdean more “professional,” just as I keep my SHC blog http://engage.shc.psu.edu/ focused upon institutional matters. I think the key to remaining whole (and not fractured) is that I do not hide my other online “identities.” There are LOTS of students who follow @targuman and my other blog http://targuman.org/ and will occasionally comment there or ask about something I have posted there.

On the other hand, I do not think that it would be terribly appropriate for me to ask for music suggestions at @shcdean. There are lots of folks who follow that twitter account (including news organizations and other administrators) who are looking to that feed for more “official” sorts of information.

Or, to put it another way, I wear a coat and tie to work, but at home I put on jeans. I am still the same person, but the change of context allows a change of attire.

What do you think? Comment here or on Chris’ Typepad blog. For those mulling online pedagogy issues, you must check out http://www.personal.psu.edu/cpl2/blogs/cplportfolio/blog/.

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