Online Identity:
Social media is a curious thing. It's a place where we want to interact with others, talk about our likes and dislikes, and show people who we are. It's also a place where we don't want people to know we're looking through their photos, where we're afraid to post about something controversial, and where we show people who we want to be, instead of who we really are. Social media gives us a platform to show the Internet and the world either who we are or who we want to be, but it is up to us to decide which route to take.
In The Guardian's article "Online Identity," the writer debates whether online authenticity or anonymity is more important when building your online identity. It's a good question, because you can be as authentic or as anonymous as you desire to be when you're online. You can use your social media sites to post every little thing that comes to your mind (as some of my friends do), or you can use it to post only the good parts of your life, to give a false impression that your life is perfect. The majority of people tend to lean towards the latter alternative, desiring to make their friends think their life is exciting even though it may not be.
This concept is an important one, because social media plays such a huge role in building one's own identity, both online and off. In 2016, nearly every person alive has some form of social media, and in this less interactive age we live in, an individual's social media account is primarily how we form opinions of one another. Of all of my Facebook friends, I probably only see 50 to 100 of them on a regular basis. When I see these people, I rarely think about what they recently said on Twitter, I think about experiences that we had in real life. Whenever I see a friend that I mostly only "know" through Facebook, I recall past opinions and judgements I made about them based on their old posts/statuses, because I have very little else to go off of.
Social media can be a wonderful thing. It allows us to celebrate important life events with one another, such as getting married or having a baby. But it also has the capability to limit how much we can truly know one another, which is why I believe that authenticity is more important when it comes to building your identity.
Hayden, I agree with you for the most part about a person being able to choose between being anonymous or being authentic when it comes to their online presence. Like you said, a person can choose to be authentic by posting everything that happens in their life, showing us the true version of themselves, or they can post only the positive things to make themselves more interesting. Your post made me realize that the "Online Identity: is Authenticity or Anonymity more important?" article is right when it discusses the various lengths one has to go to truly remain anonymous. These days, very little is kept private so in order to control ones own social media pages, they would have to take great care in what they post.
ReplyDeleteHayden, I agree with you for the most part about a person being able to choose between being anonymous or being authentic when it comes to their online presence. Like you said, a person can choose to be authentic by posting everything that happens in their life, showing us the true version of themselves, or they can post only the positive things to make themselves more interesting. Your post made me realize that the "Online Identity: is Authenticity or Anonymity more important?" article is right when it discusses the various lengths one has to go to truly remain anonymous. These days, very little is kept private so in order to control ones own social media pages, they would have to take great care in what they post.
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