Believe it or not, this is actually a very easy question to answer. Being ';true to yourself'; is being (to borrow that much abused word made popular by Camus) ';Authentic';...
What is authenticity? Simple. Being authentic means to love what you love because you love it -- to hate what you you hate because you hate it, and to be what you are because that's what you are.
Being ';inauthentic'; is loving, hating and being, what others believe you OUGHT to love, hate and be.
C'est ca. Bien?In terms of interacting online: What does being true to yourself mean to you?
For me, it means interacting with all people in the same way. The restricted nature of on-line communication means that we cannot give all the information that we want (famously, the internet does not do irony and is poor with regard to nuance in general). But in its favour, there is the fact that we can be completely impartial, as we do not know who we are dealing with. If I don't know who is reading my text, then I will treat all people the same. If I am treating everyone the same, I am to that extent being true to them all. And if i am true to them all, then I am being true to myself. I don't say everything I might want to, but I am not saying what I don't want to.
Being true to yourself is a tricky issue in any situation on-line or off. Essentially is has to be desirable, an ideal but it does imply being selfish. Selfish is a much maligned state - surely it is better to be honest about what it is that you need and want rather than playing a part that isn't really 'you'. But, what really is 'you'? How many of us ever take the time to ask ourselves the really simple direct questions about what it is that we really need and what it is that we really want? Being true to yourself is likely to be at odds with what living demands of us, unless we take to hermitage, which is constant compromise. Being selfish becomes a poor thing when it is cruelly and deliberately at the expense of others, however honest.
Understand clearly what you need, want and believe, then perhaps it will have some meaning, otherwise accept that playing parts, taking roles amd making constant compromises is the essence of human interaction and communication.
People tell you to be ';true to yourself'; when they want you to conform absolutely to a pre-existing stereotype. while there are thousands of these stereotypes, none of them are original or unique, as we are bees in a hive. So, play a role, and know you're playing a role, and then at least you're honest that you are not unique, and none of us are.
Um, we are in a public forum. being ';your true self'; constitutes shooting your own foot off. personal information is a commodity these days, why do you think Yahoo Answers exists? It isn't here to compete with Wikipedia (also a dubious affair) it is here to FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE THINK so companies can sell them stuff. In fact, they are probably hoping that any minute some programming genius will come up with a system that specifies ads to key words in your ';engram'; that trigger purchasing.
Clever people add disinformation into their online personas so as to give the marketing people some red herrings to follow.
Being ';true'; isn't the problem. Being ';safe'; is.
I have a way in which I THINK I keep myself in check as far as being true to myself is concerned. During a stressful or dramatic situation, I ask myself, ';Is this really how I am? Is this how I react?';
Then later in hindsight of the situation, I ask myself whether I screwed up, or whether that's how I truly am.
That probably didn't answer your queston at all. And it probably only made sense to me. However, if I feel as if i screwed up then I have learned a lesson. If I feel as if that's how I should have acted then kudos for me.
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