Who You Are vs. Who You Are Online
I recently read a Huffington post article that discusses a force that I believe all of us have experienced to some degree. The article introduces the "Social Media Effect," or the theory that social media influences the way we view ourselves and others. According to this article, we as Internet users have a "real" self and an "ideal" self. The "real" self encompasses characteristics - our personalities and unique attributes - while the "ideal" self is generated by what we aspire to be, primarily based on external factors and influences. Many of us own several social media accounts, and most of us consider these social media accounts to be representative of who we are as individuals. Because we view them as such, we care a great deal about what we post and how it makes us look. Though Millennials jokingly use phrases such as "picture or it didn't happen," this only confirms the way sharing content is emphasized and encouraged. As such, we like to generate posts we believe demonstrate our best qualities and experiences and that disguise our unfavorable ones.
MTV's show Catfish is a more extreme example of the danger of getting lost in online personas. Put simply, the series exposes people for being dishonest in online relationships. Many of these individuals create fabricated accounts that allow them to escape their real lives for an opportunity to be someone with more "ideal" qualities. The outcomes of these discoveries were often confusion, lowered self-esteem, distrust, and changed perception about the security of the Internet.
In its conclusion, the article made 3 points about the importance of being transparent, motivated, and realistic when using social media. I wanted to discuss the realistic component as it relates to who you are versus who you are online. As beings that are often driven by competition and a desire for self satisfaction, it is inevitable that many of us compare ourselves to others on social media and obsess over numbers of likes, comments, and followers. But if we are sifting through what parts of our "real" selves we want to share in an attempt to portray our "ideal" selves, these comparisons and quantities are bound to be unreliable. This section of the article closes with the following statement: "When you compare yourself to others, you are comparing yourself to the perception of what you think the person is. In reality, many people are presenting only their ideal selves online. Therefore, you are comparing yourself to an ideal figure, not a true representation." Users need to make efforts to invest less in creating a specific image. Rather, they should focus on developing confidence, honesty, and having experiences for the sake of having them rather than viewing everything as an opportunity to post.