What Identity?
In the era of the continual growth of the digital media age, it is difficult to sway away from the lure of following the footsteps of society. Though I am in the process of still trying to identify and understand who I truly am or want to be as a person, my digital identity speaks otherwise. Through sites such as Facebook, WordPress, About Me and Instagram (some of the main pages in which you’ll find me lurking on) I can portray myself as a more confident or smart and even a more fun version of who I really am.
My online identity is almost like an escape. It is where I can go to be whoever I yearn to be and only revealing what I want others to see.
The Virtual Self is to take on the form of an individual’s interpretation of how they desire others to perceive them. This is particularly evident in the items we post. The biggest framework of shaping our online identity, as postmodernist theorist Angela Thomas denotes, is the ways in which we perform aspects of our body (Thomas, 2007, pg 9). This includes the photos we post; how are we depicted? Are we happy, sad, angry or frustrated? We exaggerate our best features and we hide our insecurities. For all anyone could know who haven’t met me in person, I could have a prosthetic leg or be extremely short. The way in which we establish and display our relationship with others through those we allow into our friendship circle or the people in which we follow ourselves, also plays as clues to who we are. Every little detail and characteristic, matters.
Thomas denotes, with reference to Lewis (1992), that we all yearn for a sense of prominence (2007, pg.31). We want to be idolized; we want fans and followers and what better way to inaugurate this than to create a strong online identity. This does, however, counteract with my real life. A part of me doesn’t want to shape my world around the person I am online. I want it all to be real and I often find myself avoiding any display of false depictions of who I am. My online identity must also coincide with a somewhat professional manner, causing me to hesitate before I post a status or comment or even upload a photo. The ramifications of how the world would see me and one day down the track with future employment concerns, it is vital to be who I want to be but also in a sense that is somewhat restricted.
Addressing the concepts of Kollock and Smith (1999) that communities in cyberspace are advantageous in the sense that one who participates could easily enter and leave as they wish, shows that there are no boundaries or restrictions that insinuate a commitment (1999, pg.15). However, though society is under the impression that once you erase something on the internet, it would seem as though it never existed; it was never there, but that notion is dubious. During exam time, I had temporarily erased my Facebook account and shortly after, had been bombarded with texts and calls asking why or what happened. Though it may be portrayed as though nothing was ever there, people within the online community know.
REFERENCES
Thomas, A 2007, ‘Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age’, Youth Online, Peter Lang Publishing, New York.
Kollock, P, Smith, M.A 1999, ‘Communities in Cyberspace’, Routledge, London.
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