Social Media and Identity
How does Social Media Influences our Identity?
The significant effect of technology and social media on the self-identities of an individual is highlighted by Jim Taylor (2011), who claims that our self-identities are influenced by two factors — self-awareness and social or external factors. Technology over the past decade has increased significantly due to the introduction of new gadgets such as laptops, tablets and smart phones. Along with the uprising of technology, an increase of social media use has also occurred. According to Statista there was an estimated 2.46 billion network users in 2017. These social medias including Facebook, twitter and Instagram have since become a popular platform for communication and self-expression in the online world. Personally, I believe that technology and social media has the ability and influence to allow individuals to form their own identity through platforms of social media such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. As for myself, I am able to select what I post and share with the online world and express portions of my own identity to my followers. Online users can create social media profiles and these social media platforms empower them to build their own digital identity through their own expression, exploration and experimentation. Gündüz, U. (2017).
Online digital identities have slowly shifted to individuals making self-conscious decisions. A person may choose not to post a certain picture on Instagram because they don’t think it fits a certain criterion and begin to ask questions like, “Will people like this?”, Taylor, J. (2018). This may influence an individual’s identity as they begin to alter themselves and their online persona to meet the expectations that have been set by the online world. I’ve come across people on Instagram who will re-upload a certain post that did not get much likes, in order to achieve more likes later in the day when more users are active. People will adjust their identities depending on the audience they are trying to please, therefore not staying true to their self but merely changing the way they present themselves to their viewers. Individuals may pull off what is called an “online personality” through which they show a whole different side of themselves, but in reality, they may seem completely different to how they portrayed themselves through their online identity. This is most common with the platform YouTube as people are always filming themselves trying to attract the biggest audience.
Social media has influenced our identities by allowing us to create and alter our own online digital identities. Through this we are able to share and express our identities to the online world. I agree that social media has empowered individuals by allowing us to build and change our own identities. Social media is now popularly used as a platform to express our identities to one another by sharing parts of ourselves and our lives. Without the use of technology and social media, it would be hard for some of us to get our identities across to other people.
References
Gündüz, U. (2017). The Effect of Social Media on Identity Construction. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, [online] 8(5), p.85. Available at: http://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/mjss/article/view/10062/9694 [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].
Taylor, J. (2018). Technology: Is Technology Stealing Our (Self) Identities?. [Blog] Who or what is defining your self-identity?. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201107/technology-is-technology-stealing-our-self-identities [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].
https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/