Persona - A discussion of purpose, intent, necessity

Persona
By definition, the version I wish to discuss:

a person's perceived or evident personality, as that of a well-known official, actor, or celebrity; personal image; public role

By the purposes of this discussion, a persona is basically a view or perception of someone, based on their posts here in this forum, their journals, there discussions, their idea's, goal's, viewpoints.

A persona, created by Person B, of Person A.

For Each Person A, there are X number of Person b's, where X is the number of people who can view the threads of the forum. Either publicly without requiring to be registered or in the normal sections or even advanced sections where you have to have obtained certain ranks to even view.

This by itself is an inherit fault. Depending on who you are developing a persona for, you are limited to what posts you CAN see, which may not be all of them. Meaning your viewpoint is narrow at best, there also may be very few posts to work with, which also limits the range of a persona you can create on someone.

So my big question is this, given all the above information, why are we,I,You,Others,Some,All,None,whatever grouping you wish to discuss about/for, so caught up on how our persona's are generated by others? Are we seeking validation?, or are we seeking a popularity contest? some of both? something else?

Below is a related video I just listened to I found really interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNkrSnY2hZg
The summary of this video talks about how your persona can be important, especially the negative feedback to determine whether you really know what you know, and whether you are on target for what area or field you want to study, based on others in the same area of expertise. It can also be useful for finding out when you are going astray from your area of expertise and to use that to correct yourself and so on. With how young Jedi-Ism actually is though, this can be a hard thing to do.

What are your thoughts on persona?

So I log in, I read the headings, and I shift-click everything with new posts.
By dint of working bottom-to-top, I was lucky enough to see where this was going before I got to it :laugh:

My thoughts?

It depends on the person doesn't it.

Believe it or not (and that's the crux of the issue here, for all we know I'm lying through my teeth :lol: ) most of us probably exist when we're offline, and I'd like to think, if any of us are half the people we claim to be, that would be enough.

Maybe we're getting older, or we live rural, or we've moved countries, or for whatever reason it's hard to meet likeminded people, so we come online to read doctrine we identify with, study texts that enlighten us, etc etc.

Maybe, that's all it is.


Or, maybe, our offline lives suck, we're ignorant, hideous, unskilled, and miserable* - With the appropriate google-fu and ability to look down our noses without going cross-eyed, we can come here and be grand masters of every topic under the sun.

*Heck, we could be intelligent, gorgeous, highly skilled and still miserable, it happens.

Whilst as you say, not everyone sees everything everyone does - That is as true in life as it is online, or even in TotJO.
Though I believe the doctrine has some direction on honesty and openness (Non-TotJO Jedi don't have that restriction though - so if I'm not a Jedi, I can lie about being one anyway :S )

how your persona can be important, especially the negative feedback to determine whether you really know what you know, and whether you are on target for what area or field you want to study, based on others in the same area of expertise. It can also be useful for finding out when you are going astray from your area of expertise and to use that to correct yourself and so on.

I'm struggling with this, in comparison to the definition you gave you wish to discuss.

Yes, what you've said seems sensible, but I'm having trouble at this particular point in my day reconciling the relationship between personal growth and assessment based on feedback, and perceived personality created by the other party.

Forgive me Tom, I'm having trouble understanding exactly what you are asking? Could you rephrase with a more concrete example?

Manu wrote: Forgive me Tom, I'm having trouble understanding exactly what you are asking? Could you rephrase with a more concrete example?

I will attempt to do so. Let me use myself as an example:

When I made my very first youtube video I was freaked out for the first 3-4 days after I published it. I was refreshing the video every 30 minutes wondering if anyone would hit the like button, or the dislike button, whether I would get any comments as to whether what I said was right or wrong, whether I had put something good out there or whether I would be reticulated into the ground. How everyone saw my one video persona was very important to me at the time. This was 2 or so years ago just before even joining TOTJO. My extent of knowledge of jediism was purely defined by wiki's and youtube videos at the time.

Today after having done several videos and a few small series, I've gotten some negative feedback time after time, and still some positive, people tend to continue to slowly subscribe so I must be doing something right, but per a result of most of my studies I don't really...get ansy about feedback anymore. If I get good feedback great, if I don't that's fine too I welcome the feedback either way. How people perceive me at the moment is not really a lot of concern to myself. I've learned to let go of those concerns. I still take feedback, it's important to.

If someone thinks I'm a moron, I don't get upset at that its good for them I'm me and I'm still sticking with that.

However per the video in the OP, there are also some really good points on analyzing how people view you, or your persona so to speak because it can be a useful tool to decide if what you are sharing, exploring, talking about etc has any credibility. Meaning the more highly people think of your persona the more you can be trusted and so forth and opposite accordingly.

So the discussion/debate of the day, is persona an important thing? Should we really be focused on it, or ignore it? or a balance of both?

That make any better sense?

That make any better sense?

I think so?


I don't produce a lot of media, but I do run the odd lesson -

I know that there will always be people who think I'm rubbish, or that my material is rubbish (Since my lessons are free, I don't need to concern myself overmuch with pleasing people ), or those that really like it.

At the end of the lesson (or maybe a few days later, as it suits me) I'll filter through any feedback and decide if it (both positive and negative) has value and if I need to put time into assessing my presentation - Whether it be the content, the method, or even just my attitude and delivery.

Of course, that is still relying on my ability to Self-assess, after getting the "prompt" from the feedback.


So is important to have confidence in yourself when putting part of your "self" on display - Whether it is making a text post, a youtube video, giving a TED talk, or when out on a date? - Yes.

Is it important to take the opportunity to assess and learn from any feedback? - Yes*.



*Or no, If your whole intent is exhibitionism, and you get your jollies from the fact that *you* did something, and not what value the audience gets from it - Then adjusting for others is pointless.



Am I closer to your intent with the question here? :huh:

I think it is a natural progression of our ego. Not a place to stop, but it is a rung on the ladder, so to speak. Pursuing an ideal and then using others as a sounding board is a perfectly valid tactic when you just start out. After long enough, though, I feel one tends to let it go as they become more comfortable with the person they are and how they are progressing. If our material resource and worldly influence is directly tied to how we are perceived by some, their opinions will always matter. Unless we don't consider those things of importance. It can also be said, that it is not all about the individual and that our behavior will always reflect the part of us that is everything else, as we are ourselves are another part of so much more, including the lives of those we are(or are not) listening too.


However, as an inspiration for me posted elsewhere
"No matter how large or diverse the group, the Superior Person remains uniquely himself."

And I believe that.

Tellahane wrote: However per the video in the OP, there are also some really good points on analyzing how people view you, or your persona so to speak because it can be a useful tool to decide if what you are sharing, exploring, talking about etc has any credibility. Meaning the more highly people think of your persona the more you can be trusted and so forth and opposite accordingly.

I think that makes more sense to me now. And the answer lies within the question. The persona is a ultimately a tool, and thus it can be both good (if used for its purpose) or bad (if used in the wrong context). So an example of this would be in using people's feedback of your videos to polish your youtubing skills would be helpful, while letting their perception of you determine your self-esteem would be an example of a mis-used tool, if that makes any sense.