BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Getting personal

3 comments on Getting personal

Getting personal
: Anil Dash often likes to pick link-fights with me and others and Joi Ito tweaks him for it:

Anil is not nearly as annoying in person as he is online. When I met him at my party I was suprised by how warm and friendly he was. Later I started introducing him to others like this: “Anil is not an asshole but he plays one on TV.” He told me that his ability to manage his online personality was his key to success.

I have no doubt that Anil is flattered and is trying to think of something to say in someone’s comments to kill this nice-guy image. But he is a nice guy (at a party).

3 responses to “Getting personal”

  1. Scott Chaffin Avatar
    Scott Chaffin

    Lovely. I guess we should all start managing our online personality. Tell me again how this is different from everything that’s gone before it…

  2. Asparagirl Avatar
    Asparagirl

    Whatever happened to just “be yourself”? Geez.
    This “managing your online ***personality***” thing (emphasis mine) is an excuse he’s used a few times to hide behind when he feels like picking fights with (usually pro-war) bloggers.
    And if that doesn’t work, he falls back on mentioning on his blog that he’s bipolar and so we should all just cut him some slack and not call him on his opinions when we disagree with them because maybe he totally didn’t mean them. I found that a pretty cheap way to duck responsibility for one’s words. It’s an explanataion, maybe, but not really an excuse–and I say that as someone with a close relative who is bipolar.

  3. Anil Avatar
    Anil

    Eh, horseshit. I don’t make excuses for anything, and I think Joi was being a bit tongue-in-cheek about “personality management”. My site represents an accurate part of me, but it’s only exactly that, *part* of me. I’m sarcastic a lot of the time, just like on my site, but I’m also an actual human being who’s not a jerk a lot of the time, too. That doesn’t seem as amusing on my site, so I don’t tend to do that as often.
    I don’t pick fights, I make comments. Interestingly, I’m not anti-war, so I don’t know how I’d pick fights with myself. But assuming that you’re referring to my objection to raving right-wing nutcases, I think the problem is that they are guilty of what they accuse the left of: They whine too much and don’t have a sense of humor, least of all about themselves.
    If you can find one example of the behavior you ascribe to me, I’ll gladly admit I was wrong to act that way. Otherwise, as I said, horseshit.