Ahhh the satisfying sight of a blank page! The sound of my own voice given room to witter on at my pleasure....I may never shut up!

Begging the question is this my 'real' voice? Or a carefully constructed persona? An online avatar, devoid of my actual personality, lacking in the traits both pleasant and irritating that makes me human.

By carefully constructing an article in which I hope to convey jocular speech with intelligent thought, I am creating a virtual 'ME,' an avatar to roam the web seeking conversation and (lets be honest here) approval for my words, comforting my ego with love and virtual companionship.

I am a sucker for this sort of flattery so have joined many blogs, forums and social networking sites, in order to put my own ten pence into things, creating a slightly different version of 'me' every time.
These simulacra of myself, all contain elements of me, so which one is the 'real' me?

 To try and help clear my confusion I turned to a book Simulacra and Simulation  (J. Baudrillard 1981) And blimey was I mistaken! I have never felt so stupid reading a text in all my life! I didn't even understand the first page, here is a little example.....
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"It is no longer really the real, because no imaginary envelopes it anymore. It is hyperreal produced from a radiating synthesis of combinatory models in a hyperspace without atmosphere". (J.Baudrillian 1981 p.2)

Ummmmm??

So I tried again and cheated with good old Wikipedia for an answer that I would at least be able to understand!

"A simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal" 

 (Massumi, Brian. "Realer than Real: The Simulacrum According to Deleuze and Guattari." http://www.anu.edu.au/hrc/first_and_last/works/realer.htm retrieved 2 May 2007)

So.... my online  mini me's are not copies of me but true beings in their own right? This could get complicated..........