Self Representations on Social Media
Concepts:
the self
front/backstage
impression management
social forces
dramaturgy
Summary:
“Social Media Got You Down? Be More Like Beyoncé” by Jenna Wortham:
Social media has enabled us to be “on” at all times. It changed what we consider shareable, as it encourages people to share. Beyoncé however finds success by sharing little, following the saying, “less is more” as people are intrigued by her because she shares so little, creating an illusion.
“Self-representation and the dramaturgical perspective” by David Shulman:
People create versions of themselves when they go out in public or on social media in order to craft an image of themselves. People must do a lot of work to maintain and keep that image because who a person is on the Internet, can define how others view them.
Quotations:
Wortham:
“It’s not just that watching people vie for your attention can feel gross. It’s also that there’s a fine line between appearing savvy online and appearing desperate.”
“I have no idea who comes to her pool parties, if she has a pool or has ever been to a pool party. I couldn’t guess what she wears to bed. And yet, when I speak about her, it’s as if we’ve been attached at the hip since birth. I feel, very intimately, that I know her.”
Shulman:
“People are expected to embody valued attributes when in front of people, or “on stage,” and they experience powerful social pressures to do so that impact their self-consciousness and affect how they interact with others.” (Shulman, 5)
“The ability to imagine ourselves as a collection of characteristics that other people judge helps guide our conduct. People also have a socially derived sense of self as we use the input from other people’s judgments to help determine what to think of ourselves.” (Shulman, 27)
Commentary:
Social media and the Internet have become integral parts of society, as the Internet has real life effects. Take for example, the trend of googling someone before you meet them. By googling them, it gives us an idea of who this person you’re going to meet is. If that person seems to post a lot about of things about politics, it gives you a “sneak peek” into what your encounter with this person might be like. It influences the way we perceive that person even before seeing them in person.
Wortham mentions that college admissions now search their applicants prior to accepting/denying them. I remember in high school, all the upperclassmen had to attend an assembly where the teachers basically told us to “clean up our act” on social media. They told us that we should go back and delete “unsavory” content, even going as far to tell us to just change our names so colleges couldn’t find us. I personally didn’t really delete anything but classmates would upload pictures of themselves at parties and would cover beer cans with stickers to try and cover up the fact that they were drinking . Obviously, everyone knew what was under that sticker, I mean why would you put a sticker on top of a Coke can? People would change their names, getting rid of their last names or just split up their first name into two (ex: “Elizabeth Marie Smith” became “Elizabeth Marie” or “Rosemary Jones ” became “Rose Mary”).
Social media has allowed us to combine different parts of the “selves”. This can be a double-edged sword because what we do and who we are on the weekends may not fit the standards or expectations of those we need to meet at school or at work.
Question:
Both readings talk about how we formulate ourselves on the Internet using the front/backstage, so does social media create another stage in-between a person’s front stage and backstage? If so, is it a good thing that there’s an in-between or does it benefit more to keep the front and backstage separate?
