Social media has always been a way for me to meet and connect with different types of people. And I can say I have been able to do that across different platforms, often presenting myself in different ways. For instance, there's Facebook where I present myself as I like to each and every day, making new friends along the way, whether they come from school, work, or hobbies such as gaming. Then, there's LinkedIn where I present myself professionally and communicate with fellow professionals/business students to grow my professional network and get my name out there for potential jobs. Then, there are smaller, more specific networks on websites such as Discord, Twitter, and discussion boards where I speak to more specific hobbies I have such as games, art, music, movies, and sports. It makes me portray a different persona in a way since I want to connect to those other users in a way we all can empathize with each other and become friends. This persona can be called my disembodied identity since it relates to my digital self and it is more flexible than my physical self since I am discussing things I wouldn't normally discuss in-person.
Recently, we had the exercise in class where we split into three groups and went over the Pew Research Center article. My group went over the benefits of being in a tech-saturated world and one of the big takeaways we made was the idea that the internet is an "Ultimate Connection Machine" and we mentioned that "human beings want and need connection." I feel that without this connection machine, users would be unable to find and connect with others. When speaking to other specific audiences, I find myself being able to express opinions I thought would never matter to others. With games, I'm able to discuss the types of games I enjoy and connect with those who share my interests. In art, I sometimes create digital art and can share it with artists of similar style and give feedback to one another and how we can improve it; alongside what we think is some of the best art in the community we're a part of. With sports, we have a lot of different opinions, but talking about what we think will happen and why is always interesting to me. This summer, I was in a voice call on Discord with a lot of pro wrestling fans from around the world as we talked about our predictions for an upcoming pay-per-view and discussed why, alongside some future reasonings to why it happened (i.e., beyond the show we were talking about).
Not only can this type of activity grow my social network, but it can also expose my thoughts to the disembodied audiences. You never know who you will meet on the internet and it can surprise you! I can say that after talking with other users on a server, it can catch the attention of other users who come on later in the day and bring up the topics I discussed earlier with a different group of people, sparking a whole new conversation! Sometimes, they can be positive audiences, sometimes they can be negative (some may call the more negative ones, "trolls").
What is your experience with identity online? What is your disembodied identity like? Have you ever thought about your own disembodied audience? Feel free to discuss it in the comments!
I personally find the importance of online identity to be extremely interesting. It seems that the online identity is something people feel more pressured to maintain. I think that this is preferred because we have more control over how others view us. For people that we meet in person, they form their opinion of you by the interaction that they had with you. You may not have as much control of how they see you or may feel restrained in what you can say. Online, you have the freedom to choose what people can see and say what you like. Although as the chapter mentions, there are other ways for people to find things about your identity that you may not willingly post.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the fact that you brought up both the positives and negatives to these identities. People having the ability to say what you want and have control over how people view you leaves a door open for deception. People will often create an image of themselves which is not a reflection of who they truly are but who they want people to see them as, or even as someone completely different then they really are. I do see many important positives in online identities, such as being able to talk to people online about your common interests and create a new way to express yourself.
I thought that this was very interesting to read and made me think about myself. I think about how I portray myself on social media like Instagram and Twitter compared to how I portray myself on LinkedIn. It is really different because I am much more relaxed on social media. I will post things that I did on the weekend or pictures of me and my friends. On LinkedIn I am much more conservative with what I post. I post accomplishments that I have made and projects that I work on. I also write in a way that is much more formal. I also think about my identity when I am not online. I am kind of quite online usually, I do not post much on social media. If I am with my friends hanging out I am much more talkative. I also am very calm and most relaxed when I am with my friends talking in person. I feel like with an identity online a person is not really showing themselves. They aren’t going to show the bad always but when you are in person you can actually see how a person I feeling. I think that people try to put up a certain face about themselves online that is not usually true. I think that an identity online and face to face would be much different. I thought that this post was very interesting because I never really thought that much about it. I knew that online identities were a thing because people will post everything that I good in their life but not what is really going on.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a great point which all of the different platforms and how we present ourselves. As an avid LinkedIn user, it's almost an entirely different life for me on there compared to Twitter and Instagram where I am much more personal and relaxed. Going from posting accomplishments and upcoming opportunities on one site to talking about my opinions on games and other hobbies on another can be a little jarring since it displays our versatility. I also consider myself more quiet in-person but do my best to be sociable when on a social network so I can make those connections with distant users.
DeleteYou also bring up another good point about someone not being themselves online. I feel like sometimes people either aren't posting as much as they should so people know what they are about or are getting the wrong points across about them so there's a discrepancy in how they are perceived. Meeting the person for real after talking with them online for so long can also be a hit or miss. In more recent times, they have been a big hit since there are platforms such as Twitch where you can see the person live and in-person so you know what to expect in a face-to-face encounter,