Courtesy of BrianKemp (Flickr)
There is nothing which is not an intermediate state between being and nothing. - Hegel
The velocity of our social media lives
With the pace of technology exponentially increasing, we as individuals, have got access to a bewildering array of social media sites and online communities. In effect it's become increasingly easier to project whatever image we choose, to a larger audience.
So are we projecting our true sense or are social media sites accentuating characters? In this post I look at social media ecosystems that people commonly share and how they show a facet of our characters based upon the interaction.
Many hats for many occasions
- Let's take Facebook as the starting point. No doubt from the time you opened your Facebook account you've had invitations to connect with people from your past - such as friends from school, college, or old work colleagues. The open nature of Facebook's platform makes it a perfect system for you to selectively show a facet of yourself or aspiration to your audience. In effect to write your own narrative based upon the subjective views of you and your friends
- Now let's say you also have a Linkedin account. The audience you're reaching out to is different, the social ecosystem more controlled and formalised. Within Linkedin you can provide your own narrative, by virtue of your online CV, but it's guided by your career path and who you connect with. The chances are the people you connect with are not your friends but rather your colleagues from present or past. By virtue of this relationship objectivity rather than subjectivity becomes the prevailing image projected in your Linkedin self.
- Interestingly Twitter, provides a multifaceted projection of self. Your bite sized thoughts and views ripple out across the twitter-sphere. There is no firm distinction between your inner circle or outer circle of connections, other than who chooses to read or reply to your tweets. The result is one of extreme's, with either the user cultivating an extreme online self, in order to be heard above the noise, or conversely a 'truer' representation of self due to the influence of the inner and outer circle of connections.
Conclusion
To some extent just as we wear masks in certain real life situations, this has now been extended into our social media identities.
Our social media selves are increasingly reflective of our physical selves insofar as its the dialogue and the audience that determines how we are projected.