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| Image sourced: Nicole Forrester |
No matter how hard we try to escape from social media, we normally always return back to these sites within a few days, hours or for those constantly attached to their phones (like myself) in a few minutes. Aided by advancements in technology, especially since the development of smart phones, our dependency to be “in touch” with the virtual community is growing; but with this comes the issue of identity: are we presenting our true selves or the image that society created?
Marshall (2010) introduces the term
‘specular economy’ to define how society is becoming more conscious of how we
present ourselves on our social media networks and thus how others interpret our
profiles. I constantly ‘filter’ my news feed and only comment or like certain
uploads on Facebook such as photos, tags, videos or status’. I myself have been
guilty of tweaking a status before posting (especially with added #hashtags) but
never has it occurred to me that I was doing this on a daily basis; editing my
somewhat boring status’ to one that is more humorous and witty.
According to Lasch (1979) we live in a
narcissistic world where ‘competitive individualism’ exists. Comparable to
celebrities, we constantly over analyse how we should best present ourselves
online. We are consciously aware of how we present our profiles and how others
perceive us (especially potential employers). To a certain extent, manipulating
our true selves in order to get a few more ‘likes’ or ‘comments’ to feel
accepted by our fellow ‘friends’. The
best example of this is the classic “selfie” shot. After taking a few ‘selfies’
I usually select the best shot, filter it then upload it. The question is: with
all this editing, is the person in the photo still me?
DiMicco and Millen (2007) theorise that
users of such social media sites present themselves when they are using one
site to keep in contact with both their past social groups from school and
their current social connections in the workplace. Social media allows us to feel relevant and important
but at the same time also promotes being egotistical. With that being
said – how do we separate our real identity to the one that we virtually
construct online? Sadly, aided by the work of globalisation it is sure to
spread.
#yolo #swag
References
DiMicco, J.
M & Millen, D. R 2007, ‘Identity management: multiple presentations of self
in Facebook’ in Proceedings of the 2007 international ACM conference on
Supporting group work, New York, pp. 383-386
How to take the perfect selfie 2013, YouTube, Michelle Phan, 5 September, retrieved 22 September 2013,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbqIQcKNE7E&feature=c4-overview&list=UUuYx81nzzz4OFQrhbKDzTng>
I couldn't help but picture a famous scene from the Godfather when I read your first sentence: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU), and you could have chosen another reference, but the use of words such as 'always' really begs for a source to back up such a definitive statement. You nicely avoided this trap later as you used Marshall (2010), Lasch (1979), DiMicco and Millen (2007) to support your views and expend the argumentation in an open-ended way with challenging questions that, in my opinion, engaged the reader and made him (me) want to investigate such issues further. Well done! That's no easy task and you managed to do that in an efficient way. The video about selfies highlighted your point about vanity and representation in such a nice way. Great choice and great positioning between your discussion of narcissism based on Lasch (1979) and that of egotistical pursuits based on Dimicco and Millen (2007). I really enjoyed your post and I'm looking forward to read more like these in the future. Thank you for this very nice and engaging post.
ReplyDeleteKylie,
ReplyDeleteReally good stuff! Smooth, clear, informative and peppered with personal touches. Everything a blog post should be. Indeed, your somewhat candid admissions ensure it's a revealing piece. You have my admiration. I particularly like your references - interesting stuff about where our habits may be taking us.
You argue how manipulation of ourselves online in order to become more socially accepted is almost a perverse and strange phenomena; as if it's an entirely new pattern of behaviour. The digital realm is new, of course, and the consequences and ramifications of our digital selves is unique - spanning both time and space.
I would disagree. We are narcissistic, fawning creatures, for the most part, and always seeking the approval of others. We change our attitudes and appearances depending on who we think will see: our clothes and demeanour are quite different where we're at a backyard barbecue compared to a work function at a restaurant.
We shapeshift and pick and choose our personality depending on what we want to present to our target audience. The digital realm simply enables this to be done with greater precision, no?