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Whatever you choose to publish, whether as video and audio or writing, creates a long-lasting impression on the world. Whether or not what was said or how it was written is an accurate representation of you, anyone who consumes the information will automatically associate it with the truth.

No matter how much you want to retaliate that what you said isn’t 100% true or what you wrote isn’t typical of you, it’s already engraved in the audience’s mind.It is very common online for individuals to think they can hide behind a separate entity or user, distancing themselves from reality.

Anonymity was first introduced when the World Wide Web gave the public access to making online profiles. This gave people the opportunity to make accounts that were not truly them, letting them hide behind fake identities.

With this in mind, having a separate online persona is not always a bad thing. This normally applies to video game spaces where people play as in-game characters with an online name.

However, it does not apply whatsoever to a professional workspace and portfolio. Your portfolio is, well, YOUR portfolio. It needs to represent you as a person, what you have learned as you’ve grown up, and what you bring to the table. If you were to represent a completely different person online for your portfolio, is it really YOUR portfolio?

One word used to describe individuals who use fake identities to represent themselves, and that is catfishing.

Catfishing is typically used in relationship platforms and occurs online with an individual trying to befriend someone else using a fake identity. This second individual who believes they are becoming friends with a completely separate person from the one they are with creates trust issues and concerns on both ends.

For example, the first concern is that the individual being catfished is unknowingly deceived while believing they are making a real friend.

Imagine befriending an individual online, learning about their personal life like how many pets they have and their lifestyle, only to learn it was all fake.

Every second that you spent with this individual learning about their life was all an illusion. This makes the mind race, questioning what is real and what isn’t.

On the other side, the individual choosing to catfish another person has to keep an illusion of a fictitious character that they are pretending to be while living their personal life. Whether that is sitting around doing nothing all day or having an active life, they also created a second “life” online to deceive others.

Looking at both sides of catfishing, it seems like there would be no point in taking the time to make a fake persona, but this example only represents an individual who is found out to be fake online.

What about those who have false identities online, but nobody is aware?

More often than not, individuals who make false identities online choose to create idealistic versions of themselves. Whether that is being the perfect athlete or artist, every individual has their flaws but their online persona may say otherwise.

If nobody can call their bluff, this individual will continue to post and write about their perfect self and illusions of success and perfection.

Looking at this example compared to the previous one, rather than trust issues, there will be notes of impressment and envy. In a not-so-perfect world, discovering these individuals with “naturally perfect” abilities will draw the public's attention.

While individuals are swooning or are in awe with the work and capabilities of this individual, behind the screen tells an entirely different story.

Imagine that you are an aspiring artist determined to show off your creativity to the world, but let’s say that it isn’t up to par. Improvement will help increase your popularity, but instead, you choose to hide behind the perfected version of yourself before you get there.

Now the public is so impressed with the work of your perfect persona that you are not forced to keep up, despite knowing it truly isn’t you. Rather than working to improve your art and have the public be impressed with YOUR work, the public is impressed with your IDEAL PERSONA’s work.

It is even common for individuals hiding behind perfected personas to become envious of the ideal self they created online.

Having to continue working with the illusion of perfection to maintain your audience and status will naturally deteriorate over time if you cannot bring yourself up to the level that you are marketing.

Also having the illusion of marketing yourself as better than you are will eventually and inevitably be found out. It will create all sorts of problems for your reputation and trustworthiness.

Anything published online can spread like wildfire, very quickly engraving what you post into your personality, truthful or not.

Nobody wants to be in this situation. A continuous loop of faking yourself online to draw attention leads to the inevitable fate of crushing that reputation has never and will never work.

If there was anything to take away from this, if it weren’t obvious enough: Be yourself.

It’s that simple. You may not be happy or confident with where you are, and trust me, every individual is far from perfect.

It is okay to represent that online, but you want to show off what you know. Although your knowledge may be limited in a field you are interested in, it may be something others may not know about.

That in itself should be your first reason to get yourself out there. Nobody knows everything. Even the smartest people are lackluster in certain subjects.

When marketing yourself online, you want to stand out among a crowd trying to do the same. What makes companies stand out is their unique selling proposition (USP), representing what makes them stand out.

A company's USP shows off what they have that other companies may not, making it better than the competitors. You want to make yourself stand out similarly with your unique proposition.

Although your unique proposition may not be clear, simply representing yourself online with what you know will paint a picture for you.

Choosing to appear perfect online only creates complications, so the best recommendation is to be yourself.

It cannot get any clearer than that.

Look at yourself in the mirror. That is the person you want to represent online. That is who you should aspire to be, not a fake identity online.

I am still trying to discover myself as a person and my capabilities, and I am also learning how I should represent myself online. I am willing to work alongside you in this journey, but authenticity is just the start.