Alter Egos – The Challenge For Meetup

Fortune has featured an article about Meetup wanting to be the Facebook of the real world.  Scott Heiferman, the CEO says “I’ve got tens of thousands of years of human evolution and behavior behind me to say that people like the idea of real life, face-to-face conversation about something that’s important to them. I’m not trying to bring in this whole new behavior.”

Am I the only one detecting a defensive note in Heiferman’s talk?  The web’s single most contribution to socialising is anonymity.  There is a great comfort in exercising the power to explore, express and expose, through an alter ego that can be so much more than you could ever dream to become.

As Henry Winkler said, “He was my perfect alter ego. He was in control, and I never was. He was cool, and I was truly a nerd. I just played him out of affection.”

Gamers are driven by the very same motive.  Gamer tags could almost be defined as the alter egos of gamers, their virtual identities – tools to express themselves outside of their real world comfort zones.

There are some who would say their digital identities are just an easier way to communicate, not hide.  But this Linked in forum reveals that even a professional networking community may be susceptible to the charms of adopting some ‘virtual leverage’ to their personality.

And then, there is the opportunity for ‘carpet socialising’ on the web : send out a message to all your fans and followers at the click of a mouse, type out a comment faster than you think, navigate multiple chat windows – surely, virtual socialising beats Meetup at least on the volume of information sent and received.

Eventually, Meetup would evolve into the ‘fine dining’ of social networking.  It would stand for experiential networking where you involve all your senses to interpret and respond to body language, eye contact, facial expressions and vocal intonations.

I also see a convergence of digital and physical identities as the internet is proving to be a networking arena leading to business agreements, income generation and PR.

Soon, more of us would be comfortable straddling our virtual identities as mere extensions of our authentic selves. But then, But then, wouldn’t things get boring without the Fonzies of the world?

Related posts:

1. Social Media Concept #1 : Virtual Leverage
2. The Journey From Anonymity To Identity
3. Social Media Concept #2 : Carpet Socialising
4. Why Content Curation Is Here To Stay
5. Why Brands Cannot Ignore Social Media Mavens