Mirror, Mirror

Academics of today -- of all ranks -- who are engaged in normal public speaking activities are sometimes confronted with the uncomfortable replication of their shrunk-down moving images on the web. It's strange to sit on the other side of a computer screen and sometimes see myself in situations such as this or this, which with webcasting are becoming more frequent. After all, I tend to think of my intellectual avatars as being more like this person than like this grouchy-looking one sitting in the middle. This need to regulate the circulation of one's own image, of course, is one of the obvious appeals of active participation on social networking sites, where you can tag flattering photographs of yourself and try to bury the homely ones.

I just wish these videos that make me so self-conscious could age as well as these clips of super-cool philosophers on YouTube. (Thanks to fellow Sivacracy blogger Ann Bartow for the link!)