Fractal Ice Floes of Identity

Filed under: Identity

Transferring your relatively succesful offline brand and identity online is easier said than done. Social media and the swirling conversations of Web 2.0 present a whole host of unique challenges. Just ask Ryanair, United or Southwest Airlines in the airline industry alone.

French philosopher Michel Serres speaks to the issue in a very French philosophical way:

"Have you noticed the popularity among scientists of the word interface – which supposes that the junction between two sciences or two concepts is perfectly under control, or seamless, and poses no problems? On the contrary, I believe that these spaces between are more complicated than one thinks. This is why I have compared them to the Northwest Passage, with shores, islands, and fractal ice floes."

The interface between your offline and online identities is not seamless or perfectly under control, regardless of what a cadre of social media 'experts' tell you. Crafting and nuturing online identity is a modern art of communications requiring deep engagement, honesty and persistence to succeed.