Self-Presentation in an Age of Social Media
“All those identities are us, and we are more than the sum of our identities”- Rupa Dev
Dev paints an image of how the growth of online identities has introduced a new dynamic of self-presentation, not previously introduced to mankind.
For example, this easy access to friends and acquaintances’ social media profiles has led to our online selves becoming accessible twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, whether we are online or offline, awake or asleep, home or about. Before our fairly new smartphone access, “the experience of feeling monitored by [an] imagined audience”, was limited to actual, or physical interactions with others, while now it appears to have leaked into the private aspects of our lives as well.
Our private lives, combined with our online self-portrayals have become, as stated by Dev, “the sum of our identities”.
Is there any harm to this sum of online identities?
In our current age of excessive social media use, one might say that our online identities define us and we only exist so long as our internet selves are thriving and socially accepted by our peers.
Positive peer responses, such as comments and “likes” have, in a way, encouraged this online approval. And since we as humans need to feel socially accepted, we have quickly learned the actions of online self-presentation that bring the most positive outcomes; many actions which might actually be dishonest in nature, harmful to our society as a whole, and damaging to individuals’ subjective happiness and well-being.
This means that we, as daily social media users, must consider all the effects our online presentations are having on our individual lives and in our society.
Perhaps in our current twenty-first-century society, we may have to accept that online identities have simply become part of life. That does not mean we should be ignorant of both the positive and negative effects of online self-presentation, and fortunately for us, there has been much research done on the many possible variables at play in these results. As we look at many of those variables involved in the pros and cons of online self-portrayal, we will be able to make wise and conscious choices when posting our private lives online. And the first step to understanding these results, and making wise choices, is to first understand self-presentation and its role in our lives.
Self-presentation has always been part of our daily interactions with other humans and is defined as the actions and behaviors we present to create a desired image of ourselves. Some of these actions are done consciously, while others are unintentional, all of which convey a specific image of who we are, or who we wish to be. In most cases, actions of self-presentation are motivated by individuals’ goals for societal and self-acceptance, as well as positive human interaction.
These self-presentation needs have become more complex due to our quick and easy access to social media. When in the past it could take months or even years to see someone we know, online connection is now as simple as picking up our phones and scrolling through a newsfeed, instantly aware of the personal and detailed aspects of our peers’ lives.
Many questions have been raised about the psychological effects that result from this quick online access. Psychologists are continuously debating the true outcomes of social media’s use for self-portrayal, and according to Vogel and Rose, “researchers have not yet come to a definitive conclusion as to whether social network sites (SNS) use is beneficial or harmful for psychological well-being”. The reasons for these contradictory results may be found in the diverse variables of social media use.
So, whether we are among the growing number that believes SNSs are harmful or are among the large group of adamant Facebook lovers, Instagram posters, or Twitter followers, our ability to consider several variables such as gender differences, online posting motives, mental health, personality traits, and the amount of time spent on SNS, is needed to help us better understand social media use outcomes.
Many studies have been done on these variables. One example is that of Vogel and Rose, who in their research on the effects of online social comparison found that the psychological well-being of SNS users depended greatly on whether their online focus was on self or others. Their research found positive results for users who focused on self, versus the negative results of those who focused on others’ posts. In another study, Brailovskaia and Margraf did an exploratory analysis on how mental health variables and personality traits can give us an idea of who uses SNS, for what purposes, and the psychological outcomes of that social media use.
The results of these studies help us consider the variables that might play a role in our own social media use.
With over 2 billion users, Facebook is one of the most used and researched among SNS, and is a large outlet for self-presentation, making it the perfect study subject for online self-presentation.
It allows its users to stay connected to a web of online friends through messages while posting pictures, status updates, and providing feedback to each others’ posts through likes and comments, and allows constant opportunities for them to present themselves to an online audience, as well as providing exposure to other’s posts of self-presentation. Facebook is thus becoming one of our main channels for self-presentation. According to Brailovskaia and Margraf, “social needs have been shown to be an important motive for Facebook use and social media use as a whole”, and its “use is partially motivated by a need for positive self-presentation”.
This has raised a lot of questions on how it’s affecting us as individuals and affecting our society as a whole.
With the large amount of social media use for self-presentation, it is easy to believe that “we barely exist anymore if we don’t exist online”, or that our online presentations are the true representations of our lives.
Whether offline or online, we all need to feel valued among our peers. According to iresearch.net, a reference for psychology research, “self-presentation is inherently goal-directed”, and we as humans need to maintain a sense of who we are as individuals, as well as acquire social rewards such as appearing likable and competent. Because every person comes from different backgrounds with differing opinions and ideas, daily interaction requires a level of learned skills such as good communication, patience with each other’s shortcomings, and understanding of each other’s differences.
Offline, we achieve these goals through verbal, nonverbal (body language, eye contact, physical appearance, behavior), and by “the props [we] surround [ourselves] with, and through [our] associations”. Erving Goffman compares this idea of self-presentation as “a theatrical performance”.
Vogel and Rose phrased this as,
“Users tend to emphasize the positive aspects of their lives and portray themselves as popular, well-rounded, and thoughtful”.
Self-presentation is, in summary, a person displaying a desired image, whether honest or false.
In face-to-face interactions, we can discern a level of honesty in the presenter due to these verbal and nonverbal physical clues, although with the introduction of SNSs, many of those self-presentation physical cues are obsolete when using social media. Our SNS followers can no longer pick up on social hints and must rely on concrete images, such as words and photographs, all of which are chosen carefully by us, the presenters.
Goffman’s idea of “a theatrical performance” has been amplified with social media, and presenters can now create any online identity, or image, they desire.
What image do they wish to portray?
Vogel and Rose suggest that “SNS users selectively present the most positive aspects of their lives, such that their lives appear unrealistically happy and successful”. One video that questions the honest use of presenting one’s self online is the YouTube video, “Are You Living an Insta Lie? Social Media Vs. Reality”, which follows the domino effect of falsely portrayed online posts.
It introduces the term, “Insta Lie” which is defined as a misrepresented picture of one’s self posted on SNS. While focusing on the most stereotypical examples, the video plays with the idea that many online posts are edited and glorified. Perhaps this is not true for all online posts, yet research has found due to social comparisons, falsely portrayed images are not hard to find for anyone casually browsing a SNS.
What effects are these falsified online posts having on us?
Vogel and Rose found that “much of Facebook use involves passively browsing others’ content” which can cause “users to feel envious of the profile owners and leads to upward social comparison”. Their research found that due to the upgraded posts found on SNS, “most social comparisons made [. .] are likely to be upward”, when in reality, we’re often on the same level socially as our online friends and acquaintances.
A simpler way to phrase this would be to say that on social media, we compare our worst selves to others’ best, or false, selves; even when the “majority of [our] Facebook friends are of the same age and location as [us]”.
What are the results of these envious upward comparisons?
It has been found that “envy on social media creates a vicious cycle in which viewing unrealistically positive profiles leads to the creation of more unrealistic positive content for others to view, [thus leading to] negative outcomes such as decreased life satisfaction, [and] negative thoughts and emotions”. Because many online presentations are portrayed through photographs, some of these negative thoughts and emotions may be that of lower self-esteem and body-image.
In Fox and Vendemia’s research on selective self-presentation and social comparison because of SNS photographs, they performed a study consisting of 1,686 men and women to determine the relationship between online photos of self-presentation and social comparison. They found that “these comparisons are often driven by pressure from peers and media to adhere to societal beauty ideals”. Because photos on SNS have become as available as the smartphone in our pockets, that social pressure has become almost constant. This leads users to self-objectify and “has been tied to several detrimental outcomes including depression, body shame, and disordered eating”, especially among women, although according to research results, both men and women are developing appearance-related concerns as the use of social media increases.
Vogel and Rose found that women who socially compared themselves to other women's attractive online photos “showed a large discrepancy in perceptions of their actual and ideal bodies” and viewers (both men and women) developed “negative self-evaluations and lower self-esteem” from comparing themselves to those who appear healthy and to have a positive social following online.
Of course, not everyone has the same experience using social media. There are those who are not affected by social comparison, who do not feel worse after seeing others’ attractive photos, and are not weighed down with depression, lower self-esteem, and decreased body-image after scrolling through their social media news feeds.
Many variables are at play when it comes to social media use, such as the time an individual spends on social media, their motives for using a specific SNS, their outward or inward focus, and their online behavior due to personality and mental health traits.
As stated before, Vogel and Rose found that psychological outcome of social media use depends on whether the viewer is focused on self or others. When an individual is focused on self, “they undergo self-affirmation, wherein they are reminded of the positive aspects of their own selves and lives”, thus “viewing and updating their profile then results in a boost of self-esteem”. Rather than focusing on the happiness and success of others, a SNS user uses their online social support to affirm their positive qualities. Rosenbloom, in her New York Times article, “Putting Your Best Cyberface Forward” stated that “when people misrepresent themselves, it is often because they are attempting to express an idealized or future version of themselves”.
So, perhaps SNS users are not intentionally trying to misrepresent themselves online, but to remember their positive traits; and, if misrepresentations are intentional, they are simply trying to present their future idealistic selves.
Since everyone responds uniquely to different experiences, another variable that we must take into consideration is that of SNS users predispositions towards mental health and personality.
Brailovskaia and Margraf performed a study of mental health variables and personality traits by surveying college students who were either Facebook users or non-users. They found that “Facebook users had significantly higher means of self-esteem, narcissism, extraversion, life satisfaction, social support and subjective happiness”, while Facebook non-users on the other hand “showed marginally higher values of depression symptoms”. This is not saying that this is the case for everyone, yet it can give us an idea of who might be the Facebook users, such as those who are already more extroverted and self-confident. From the research done by Vogel and Rose, it might be safe to say that those with positive outcomes from SNS use are those focusing on self and are not socially comparing their lives with the lives of others.
Because each person’s situation is different and the research results on SNS use has contradictory outcomes, we cannot base our opinion of social media purely on research. We all need to determine our own online self-presentation goals, as well as understand our personalities and personal dispositions towards mental health. Perhaps, taking a break from social media, even for a brief time, would be beneficial for each of us to discover our individuality and to set specific self-presentation goals.
In my own life, I deactivated all my SNSs over 9 months ago. I wanted to better understand what my motives were for social media use and found that for me personally, I focused more on others’ posts than on my own inward strengths. While I socially compared my worst self to others’ best selves online, it took these past 9 months to learn self-acceptance and to love myself for my uniqueness.
As we each take a step back from social media and reevaluate our own online self-presentation goals, we will be able to reenter the world of social media, confident that we will be able to present ourselves in the most authentic and self-accepting ways.