Now that I have finally been able to find some good, clean places to hang out online while the local public school tries to waste half my life in class, I have made a few new friends on various chat room and boards. These friends natuarally want to connect to me on other forums and in other formats. I think this is wonderful, and enjoy getting to know each of them.
But, to be honest, I'm going crazy trying to keep up with everyones names! I rarely give my real name online, but I try to keep my screenames consistant across various sites, so people can at least remember who I am. But some people I am trying to get to know, have a diffrent name on each site! On some sites you can even change your screename, which most teens do at least once a week. I'm sorry, but if you are Sally this week, Mary next week, Jennifer on Yahoo, and Amanda on MSN, don't excpect me to be able to keep it all straight, especially when there are a dozen other people I know, each with thier own collection of names!
I've heard a lot of people say that the internet is where you can invent a new personality. But I fear this is leading to a severe case of mulitiple-personality disorder for many of our young people, who can't seem to decide what they want to be, so they maintain the personalities of four of five diffrent people on diffrent sites.
Now lets be real for a moment, shall we? When you go to work or school, you have many coworkers and classmates, and they all call you by the same name everyday. Your close friend or sibling might have a nickname for you, but they are going to call you that every time they see you. Niether you boss, your boyfriend, or anyone else is going to call you varios names depending on where they meet you.
So please, for the sake of all our sanities, pick one or two handles or screenames that express you and will grow with you over the next few years, and keep them! Thank you.
