Why Ethos?

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   I was recently at a reunion for an online school I had taken classes at for the 2016-'17 school year, and as you can imagine, meeting people "in real life" after only having known them from the internet is a very strange thing. I think I can safely assume that we all have at least one person in our lives that we've known online for a certain amount of time, and then later met them in the real world.

   While at this reunion, more than half of the people who met me for the first time had the initial reaction in the form of a certain nickname: "Falafel". They had known me under that name from the internet, it was a name bestowed upon me for the purpose (I'm assuming) of actually being able to call me by a name that can be fully spelled out, since my last name is Pfohl (hard to spell, right?). So in the words Jack used in his post, I had both the Invented Ethos (the nickname Falafel), and my Perceived Ethos ("hey, it's Falafel! that funny dude who trolls the student discussion forums!").

   So in my example, my Ethos isn't necessarily one that I wanted, but I couldn't do anything about it except for stick with it and shape the perception of "Falafel" on the internet. I kind of like the name now, and I even use it in some of my Social Media usernames.

   How can I shape the perception of my alternate Identity, "Falafel"? How I use the name in context online. Because I have accepted the name, I can use it when I communicate with people online and at that point, everything I say represents both me and "Falafel". I am at that rare place where my actions affect the perception of both my identities.

   Now how can you apply my personal example of Perceived/Invented Ethos to your own life? Take this away: watch what you say (that unintentionally rhymed, ayy). Watch what you post on FaceBook, on Instagram. Do you want your entire Social Media feed to consist of selfies saying "look at what I'm doing that you aren't!", or do you want to snap a picture of something that you really wanted to share with others, maybe a picture of the Statue of Liberty for example. Do you want your FaceBook timeline to be full of posts about Gaming news, or do you want people to be looking for your posts every week on how God really showed you Grace on Monday? Your online presence massively shapes your Ethos that others perceive of you, and whether you want for this or not, people will judge you (and continue to do so) based on how you carry yourself based on what they can see on their smartphone screens.

   Of course, this also applies to real life, but I chose specifically to address how you can shape and retain your Ethos solely over the internet. Be mindful of what you do, always remember to do all things with purpose, and may God bless you all.

- Caleb Pfohl

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