I bet that most of you reading this post have over inflated your online / digital profiles to some extent or another.

I’m not only referring to perennial social networks like Facebook, Myspace or local flavoured Blueworld, but have you considered other digital formats where you present a piece of yourself to the public like your blog, your e-mail sginature, your online resume, your Linked-In profile, your mobile answering message, online dating profiles or even your twitter conversations?

What are the impression people get from you when they visit your personal footprint?

Before you discount yourself from these majorities, ask yourself these simple questions:

1. Have you spent more than a considerable amount of time choosing a picture for your online profile / have you used image editing software to improve your picture?

2. Have you looked up words or searched for more “clever” words to spice up writing so that it comes across as more professional?

3. Have you ever excluded certain (critical) personal information from your profile?

4. Have you ever been reluctant about publishing information online because of its availability to others?

5. Have you connected with higher statused people to improve the perception of yourself?

I have.

Some call it common sense, some call it vanity. Scientists call it impression management. Society’s moral standards have demanded from us to live a more congruent life, one that is aligned with our inner beings through every format we present ourselves.

Isn’t it shocking then how badly we want to portray an image to society that isn’t a true reflection of our true self?

Isn’t it indicative of a lack of contentment with whom and what we are that we strive to represent a more refined model of ourselves online?

How important is all this? Well, for one, in an era where many conversations are occurring digitally in some format or another, I’d think it’s pretty darn important.

Previously, where resumes were printed and handed to future employers, candidates were then invited for interviews where a pretty accurate analysis of the person could be performed.

As more and more people shift their focus online to improve their lives, their jobs and the company they keep, how much of our lives have become a fad?

How would we be able to establish trust, form substantial relationships or deliver on a promise of something we certainly aren’t capable of that have been imprinted in people’s minds and on digital real estate?

One thing I’ve learned ever since my entire professional life and much of my personal life occurs online is to try and stay true to myself.

But when people e-mail you something like: “Your bad, slangy English is intolerable. I can’t stand it.”, how many of us revert back to impression management?

Living and working online have made celebrities from all of us, even though it’s to a much smaller fanbase. What we reveal to them is just as important as to what Britney Spears reveal to millions.

Think about it.

Idea source of this post: New York Times