Why do we strive for authenticity on Social Media?
“You are what you tweet.”
— Alex Tew, Monkey Inferno
We are in the age where social media pretty much consumes our lives. We create our own profiles, editing and curating (our feeds) to make them “aesthetic” or atleast to come off pretty to whoever visits our profiles. Social Media have tricked us into thinking that whatever is on our profile, what comes up in our posts and our tweets, define us. In some ways, I do agree. But Social Media has gotten the best of us and lead us to believe that everything we see on it is real.
Throwing it back to 2008, when we first heard Demi Lovato’s iconic line from the song This is Me. But are you really? None of the people on Social Media are as real as you think they are.
Last April 27, I made a survey entitled “Social Media is not real. Are you?” identical to this series’ title. I asked what people’s definitions of real and authentic were. Respondents said that to be real and authentic is to be genuine, unique and original. That real and authenticity is having no bullsh*t, that it’s raw and it’s the now or the present moment. Another respondent said, that in terms of social media, real and authentic is defined by post-production. The absence of editing, filters and the like. And lastly, one thinks that the word “Honest” best suits what “real” is. And I agree. Out of all the 22 respondents, I got a bunch of definitions, trying to explain what real and authenticity is, but this one-word response stuck to me the most.
Being real and authentic is not as easy as we think it is, atleast not on Social Media. With the amount of people performing online but claim for it to be realistic is very alarming. Especially, since the younger generation is the one mostly online right now, Social Media isn’t a healthy space to grow up in.
With the recent Black Lives Matter Movement, social media users such as influencers, instagrammers, and twitter people, surfaced through the internet because of their performative activism. From joining protests so they can take “Instagram pictures” to posting black squares on their Instagram feed to gain black supporters. Some of these people were called out for their outrageous “performances.” Though, we cannot assume that they mean any harm, their performative activism has offended many people. In fact, some of these celebrities were called out for their racist past, and for switching to promoting brands right after posting content on the BLM movement, as if they’ve done their part, and that’s the end of it.
In the survey, I asked whether they thought they were being real on social media and if they strived for authenticity, most of them said yes. Most of them would like to think that they are being real. So, I guess they’re also not sure if they are… There’s this respondent who answers “No, because blockages are still present. Society still limits me from showing my true self. We are pushed to create dump accounts where our not so filtered life is shown. We are urged to create a clear boundary between what’s acceptable to your feed and not.” If you’re not familiar what dump accounts are, they’re second accounts that are made private by people, so that they can share more of what their “real life” is. These accounts are also called, finstagram or finsta, for short. So, people generally perform more in their public accounts.
“It [Social Media] beckons us to create not for the Love of creation, but to maintain a constant stream of content so we are not forgotten in the cyber spiral.” — Mimi Zhu
When I questioned why people are performative on social media, a classmate of mine said that “Isn’t social media made to be performative? It was created so that us humans can get away from our realities.” I thought about it a lot, and it made sense. But, I realized that if we claim for Social Media to be performative, then shouldn’t we stop acting as if everything on there is real? I don’t mind if people put on performances everyday on their social media accounts, just as long as they remain genuine and true to themselves and their followers. But, that isn’t the case now. People pretend as if they’re life online, is so glamorous, beautiful, interesting and acting as if that’s real. If your life really is like that, then good for you. But, most people just don’t show the bad things, the sad parts of their life, the time they were angry or depressed. And that’s fine, because we are entitled to our own privacy but then don’t pretend like your life is so perfect, and to the point of lying to your viewers. That just gives wrong impressions to them. A lot of people on social media, “perform” just for the sake of catching people’s attentions. I found this post on Instagram by socialist writer and artist, Mimi Zhu:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1zPFpFv_n/
People strive on being authentic but share only the good things or the happy moments, but life isn’t always about that. If we really want Social Media, to become a place for authenticity, then we have to understand and accept that Social Media is two dimensional. What we see on people’s profiles, is only a speck of their multi-dimensional selves. What we see and hear online isn’t always real and accurate. Also, as creators or users of social media, we shouldn’t lead our followers into thinking that everything about us and our content is real. So, it goes both ways. For us to make social media, a more truthful space, we have to be careful on what we see, hear, say and do as both creators and viewers.
So, can Social Media be not performative? Find out my answer on the next and last write up in the series! Link below!
