Are We Who We Are?

People love to show who they are in face to face communication. By wearing a hoodie that has a big PSU logo on, dyeing hair in pink, or even having a permanent tattoo, people communicate and continuously deliver who they are, or an identity. The identity is about who am I, but it is not only personal aspect such as who do I think I am but also social concept that an identity is built in a part of other people and shaped through feedbacks from them. Moreover, unlike a traditional view on identity, which stated identity as a single fixed stable idea, the contemporary view on identity says it is flexible and multiple identities exist. Just like people love to share their identities with symbolic markers in face-to-face communication, people who are living in a social network era also share who they are constantly via their SNS or other online sources.

Just like an offline, people self-manage about their identity online, and sometimes it becomes a play to perform. Identity play is a one way to manage own identity. Using strategic endeavor people do self-presentation online. From social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and twitter to a user-generated media like blogs and Youtube, a profile takes a huge part of the online identity. People care about a profile picture a lot because online where the non-verbal communication- physical appearance- is absent, profile picture takes a role of showing who they are visually. According to Goffman’s idea of identity as a performance, people have creativity and freedom in forming identity. There is a front region/stage where character plays as what they are, but on the back region where no one but himself or herself can see is the place that ‘real me’ lives. It is one of our natures to hide bad and weak part and only display fancy side on the front. However, when that play gets too deep into real me, sometimes we get confused and depressed between the character online and reality offline.

According to an article from Huffington post, consider the fact that on social media sites, we consider our profiles to be presentations of who we are. Therefore, through interaction with the social medium, the real and ideal selves intersect; and the ideal self is at least partially actualized. In essence, our online selves represent our ideals and eliminate many of our other real components.

CMC often has disadvantages from lacking non-verbal part of the communication, but that weakness can be useful when it comes to the identity play. Anonymity gives people freedom to build a whole new person in the cyberspace. No matter who they really are in the real life they can create a new person online. Some people live a totally different life online like they change their names, gender, or even appearance.

            Once I saw a TV show about a girl who doesn’t have friends in her real life. She eats lunch by herself at the school, always alone and none of her classmates know her, but online she has more than 5000 followers on her Facebook. Because she does lots of Photoshop on her picture, she looks so different on her Facebook. She would buy and wear a T-shirt that does not fit to her just to take a one-photo shoot. Then she crops a picture and does lots of Photoshop from her face to body. I could see that she was very happy living a two different life because at least everyone loves her online. However I think identity play went to far for her that she doesn’t take care about her real self and abnormally obsessed with fake identity. For someone it is just another way to communicate with others, but the Facebook with her fake identity was the only method to her.

            From the author of previous article gives some advice to people who are using social medias by saying, “Rather than focusing your attention and effort into creating an ideal online persona, use your time and effort to accomplish the goals that will align your real self with your ideal self. By doing so, you will ultimately become more fulfilled as you accomplish the goals that will lead to your path to self-actualization the "real" you” As one of the users of social media like Facebook and Instagram, I also pay attention to what goes to on my wall either video I share or selfie I took with my friends because online, they represent who I am. Therefore I only post a selfie that I look good, or even better than what I really look like by using a fancy filter. Though I manage my online identity, I try to maintain who I really am on the online too because I know that I will lose myself and get depressed if I start to get confused between real me and cyber-me.