As I learn more and more about the social science behind Social Media I am still baffled by how many experienced individuals there are in this field that still swap and maintain multiple identities online. I’m not talking about those happy go lucky individuals who use Twitter as a fun social tool/game, rather I’m talking about those who use it primarily for serious knowledge management and community engagement or to fulfil their innate passions.

I’ll just for the record define what I mean by; changing your identity, as best I can. I know there are many ways to look at identity and I won’t do it justice in this blog post but hopefully this stimulates the topic. Your user name is an identity as it helps identify you. Your avatar photo is a representation of your identity and both these together define your identity online. If you suddenly stop Tweeting and focus on Re-tweeting or you start to rant a lot more online that is representative of your personality and is less about your identity. The government is serious about you maintaining one identity off-line and that’s the whole reason you have a passport and why it’s a crime to forge another person’s identity by creating another passport with your photo and a different person’s name in it. 

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Social Media is nothing we can hide behind. It exposes us in areas we didn't know we even had areas. I wanted to introduce you to what I call the "coffee shop syndrome" of Online Social Media:

Remember those times we skived off from school pretending to be sick so we could have a day off. Remember then how your parents would tell you "well if you're too sick to go to school you're defiantly too sick to go to the shops." You tended to agree only because if someone from school saw you out and about they would wonder why you were not in class. Well the coffee shop syndrome relates to this concept but I just wanted to set the scene offline first.

"The Coffee Shop Syndrome" relates to our level of Emotional Intelligence and how we act upon these skills in the world of Online Social Media. Remember that Emotional Intelligence refers to how often we demonstrate certain behaviours.  It's a set of skills that define how effectively we perceive, understand, reason with and manage our own and others' feelings.  It's all very well believing we demonstrate a high level of EI but if we don't have an outward display of this behaviour then others may have a different opinion!!

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I felt compelled to write this post in light of the recent Twitter crazed support of the most popular reality show in the history of Australian TV, MasterChef. Something fundamental was uncovered for me and it relates to a change which we are all going to have to face up to. Twitter is crossing boundaries and these are quite serious ones indeed which Media companies such as Channel 10 are going to have to face up to.

The MasterChef final went to air on the East coast of Australia at 7:30pm last night. It was only to be aired two hours later on the west coast of Australia when it would be 7:30pm there, due to the time zone difference. MasterChef, during the series, gained a massive following on Twitter. If you don't believe me do a search in Twitter on #masterchef and see for yourself. The series for many who use Twitter was made that much more special when shared with new and old friends alike on the Twitter Social Media platform. The advertisement breaks for once became useful as Tweets spun between the lounge rooms of viewers. This is entertainment and we will see this concept grow and grow.

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