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| My vinyl Instagram (pre-2000s hip-hop only) |
It was through gaming that I connected with ICT, and the concept of a digital self (which would evolve into "online identity") all the way back when the Apple II was the hot machine. Playing Wizardry, I relished the opportunity to develop a party of characters, stacking each with parts of my persona and a name that I chose for them (see Slideshare). After reading Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin 1968) I developed an intense interest in onomastics: the study of names; specifically proper nouns. I wouldn't learn of or even hear the term "onomastics" until many years later, but I knew that names were important and that they contained palpable energy that might somehow be harnessed to one's benefit.
Our names are our brands. In market terms, brand names are "the semiotic fuel" that propel corporate identity (Danesi 2011, p. 177), and this same semiotic fuel is used to propel our own identities in everyday life. Branding originally entailed literally burning one’s name/symbol into one’s product/possessions. While the physical burning occurs less these days, the concept of burning our identities into peoples' minds is still the fundamental purpose of branding. De Chernatony, McDonald, and Wallace explain that branding is about a relationship between a product and a consumer, and that relationship “is personified either by the company’s name or the brand name on the product itself” (2011, p. 16). Just thinking or saying a known business name is instantly evocative. For example: Coca-Cola, Ford, Aldi, Heineken, Calvin Klein. At least one of those names is likely to have made you think about the associated products as you read it. Isn't that what so many of us want in life: to know that people are thinking about us?
I use the name "Devilclone" for many components of my overall online identity (see Slideshare), and am fiercely proud of the fact that I managed to secure a handle with syntactic meaning that does not require numbers or special characters to make it valid. Names like 733t_iz_ded, and raggedfunstick94, and even works of art such as -Xx_9nome876_xX- are fine and all, but I personally connect more quickly with an online identity that has a name that I have been inculcated to recognise as a name - bigbill, or MrMaxWebber, or Siobhan. I believe this to be the influence of the doxa inherent in semiotics.
Yo, Kojima-san... What's with the Sony exclusive on Death Stranding? #lame #tease #whytho #deathstranding #hideokojima #Alc708— Devilclone (@Samuel_Byrnand) December 9, 2017
Our names are our brands. In market terms, brand names are "the semiotic fuel" that propel corporate identity (Danesi 2011, p. 177), and this same semiotic fuel is used to propel our own identities in everyday life. Branding originally entailed literally burning one’s name/symbol into one’s product/possessions. While the physical burning occurs less these days, the concept of burning our identities into peoples' minds is still the fundamental purpose of branding. De Chernatony, McDonald, and Wallace explain that branding is about a relationship between a product and a consumer, and that relationship “is personified either by the company’s name or the brand name on the product itself” (2011, p. 16). Just thinking or saying a known business name is instantly evocative. For example: Coca-Cola, Ford, Aldi, Heineken, Calvin Klein. At least one of those names is likely to have made you think about the associated products as you read it. Isn't that what so many of us want in life: to know that people are thinking about us?
My online identity: delving into the digital self from Samuel Byrnand
NOTE: Please excuse the image resolution on the Slideshare presentation. The app has completely dogged my rez.
NOTE: Please excuse the image resolution on the Slideshare presentation. The app has completely dogged my rez.
I use the name "Devilclone" for many components of my overall online identity (see Slideshare), and am fiercely proud of the fact that I managed to secure a handle with syntactic meaning that does not require numbers or special characters to make it valid. Names like 733t_iz_ded, and raggedfunstick94, and even works of art such as -Xx_9nome876_xX- are fine and all, but I personally connect more quickly with an online identity that has a name that I have been inculcated to recognise as a name - bigbill, or MrMaxWebber, or Siobhan. I believe this to be the influence of the doxa inherent in semiotics.
Or maybe I'm just old fashioned.
— Devilclone (@Samuel_Byrnand) November 25, 2017Regardless, in the word "Devilclone" I have found an original name that I have been able to use across multiple platforms and software packages. I use the name socially and I use it professionally. It is easy to recall because it is a compound of two words that each carry strong connotations in the English speaking world. Names like "Godweapon" or "Lovedeath" would probably work just as well. In gaming forums or chats, people who don't know me usually address me as Devilclone, whereas friends will generally refer to me as Dev, Devil, or DC - like nicknames for my nickname. These abbreviated forms of Devilclone solidify this virtual identity into something more organic, and recognizable as having substance beyond a simple character string. Like how irl people will call me Sam instead of Samuel, it makes the discussion casual, comfortable, and less formal. When you're speaking with "Samuel" - unless you're my grandmother - you and I are likely in some kind of formal setting, bound by etiquette and stricture. But when you're chatting with "Sam", you're having a chill time with a chill guy, definitely not a robot or a script.
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| My kitty-cat Instagram |
Names in the online sphere are academically interesting. They form a source of metadata that can be mined for all sorts of research possibilities. Papers such as Designing for the commercial exploitation of online identity (Emmanouil 2017), What's in a name? Ages and names predict the valence of social interactions in a massive online game (Kokkinakis, Lin, Pavlas & Wade 2016), and Social movements and email: expressions of online identity in the globalization protests (Wall 2007) comprise little more than a drop in the bucket of total academic interest in the topic.
Considering names are so often simply taken for granted, we sure do spend a lot of time ruminating about, researching, arguing over, and developing proper nouns. I recall watching John Oliver make fun of the fact that US President Donald Trump's family name was originally "Drumpf" and was caught up in the humor of it all. Upon later reflection I realised that I was chuckling at a name that is common enough in Germany, and certainly not deserving of derision simply for the sound it forms on the tongue as perceived by English ears. Years earlier, on Letterman (yes, I love American TV), Dave had been tipped off about a person living in Canada with the name Dick Assman. They called Mr Assman - a service station attendant at the time - live on the show and he managed to garner some celebrity out of the encounter, which became known internationally as "Assmania" (this is not made up...some of you will remember this, the rest can easily Google it). Assman's full name was Richard Arthur Assman, and his last name is pronounced "oss-man" in the original German. He died in 2016, but it is doubtful a person with that name will ever be forgotten.
De
Chernatony, L, McDonald, M, and Wallace, E 2011, Creating Powerful Brands,
Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK.
Kokkinakis A, Lin J, Pavlas D, Wade A 2016, What's in a name? Ages and names predict the valence of social interactions in a massive online game, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 55, no. PB, 605-613.
Wall, M 2007, Social movements and email: expressions of online identity in the globalization protests, Sage Journals, vol. 9, no. 7, 258-277.
Considering names are so often simply taken for granted, we sure do spend a lot of time ruminating about, researching, arguing over, and developing proper nouns. I recall watching John Oliver make fun of the fact that US President Donald Trump's family name was originally "Drumpf" and was caught up in the humor of it all. Upon later reflection I realised that I was chuckling at a name that is common enough in Germany, and certainly not deserving of derision simply for the sound it forms on the tongue as perceived by English ears. Years earlier, on Letterman (yes, I love American TV), Dave had been tipped off about a person living in Canada with the name Dick Assman. They called Mr Assman - a service station attendant at the time - live on the show and he managed to garner some celebrity out of the encounter, which became known internationally as "Assmania" (this is not made up...some of you will remember this, the rest can easily Google it). Assman's full name was Richard Arthur Assman, and his last name is pronounced "oss-man" in the original German. He died in 2016, but it is doubtful a person with that name will ever be forgotten.
Our hottest paper has just been republished by University of Minnesota Press...yay! #zombietheory #universityofminnesotapress #academia #somekindofvirus #Alc708 pic.twitter.com/hwQNIYSsyX— Devilclone (@Samuel_Byrnand) November 13, 2017
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| My Canberra region street art Instagram |
One last recollection that involves a German name: Fanny
Chmaler. I cannot possibly convey in writing the awkward hilarity of this incredibly
insensitive game show host losing his mind over the name Fanny Chmelar...so click here to see for yourself.
It is obvious that names are vital components of our
individual identities, and living and operating in this globalised
communications data ocean we call the internet (well, the "world wide
web", to be specific...the internet is a related but different thing) has
given us the opportunity to brand ourselves and become whomever we choose to be
at the stroke of a few keys.
I have chosen Devilclone.
References
Danesi, M
2011, What's in a Brand Name? A Note on the Onomastics of Brand Naming, Names, vol. 59, no. 3, 175-185.
Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK.
Emmanouil, D 2017, Designing for the commercial
exploitation of online identity. PhD thesis, University of
Nottingham.
Kokkinakis A, Lin J, Pavlas D, Wade A 2016, What's in a name? Ages and names predict the valence of social interactions in a massive online game, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 55, no. PB, 605-613.
Le Guin, U 1968, A Wizard of Earthsea, Parnassus,
USA.
Wall, M 2007, Social movements and email: expressions of online identity in the globalization protests, Sage Journals, vol. 9, no. 7, 258-277.
Images
All images property of author: ©Samuel Byrnand 2017
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