Social Media, Social Beings
Our life on social media takes
increasing space and progressively overtakes the reality of our being. That
could be the underlying message of Stromae’s famous blue bird video clip.
From an entertainment platform
or means of communication, social media has progressively earned more and more
influence on our lives and further, on our beings.
Nowadays, the influence of
social media on the formation of one's Identity is an area of research and analysis
that many experts venture in.
Social (and not only human)
beings have come to internalize and accept the fate that they are bound to
external forces in the process of building their behaviors, sometimes shutting
down the outcry of their inner character, if ever available to them, that they
fear would not fit what constitutes Society.
A conception that we can
witness, practically, through the common use of social media today. Human
beings have been social from the very moment they were, but modernity bringing
its own foes, new technologies have brought about a new way of socializing,
interacting, and connecting. Bringing an additional layer to the social
construct of self in an already complex social fabric, where individuality
becomes intertwined with the surrounding society.
George Herbert Mead, in his
approach to social psychology, put forward, almost a century ago, a conception
of self that is inherently social and constructed through social interactions.
Consecutively, writing in 1956, sociologist Erving Goffman[1] compares our life in
society as a theatrical representation where “the self, then, as a performed character, is not an organic thing that
has a specific location, whose fundamental fate is to be born, to mature, and
to die; it is a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a scene that is
presented, and the characteristic issue, the crucial concern, is whether it
will be credited or discredited.”
His comparison with theater
reminds us that the individuals we meet, might not be what they are but only
what they seem. Not alluding to identity theft here. But, just as a character
in a movie, we put on behaviours, adopt a certain speech, make ours an opinion,
that we attribute to what we want people to believe we are. We fully endorse a
character, like the good guy in a movie, and strive to convince people that we
are, indeed, that good guy, by performing publicly to the best of our ability.
A study conducted in Portland
University, reveals that “the online
identity that a user presents is validated and is thus reflected and maintained
offline. This would suggest that because the online presentation of self is
popular amongst peers, the user continues this presentation offline as a way to
convey this specific image of themselves to other audiences”[2].
This highlights the constant
interaction and interdependence of an individual and his social environment.
Allow me to dwell on the concept of social environment. The social environment
is made of the elements that shape the individual, slowly, meticulously, over
time and through a passive/active process. Just like the sculptor’s movement
give life to the shapeless piece of wood, our biographical journey give life to
the social and particular individual we are to become. However, and unlike the
sculpting process of the wood, the total sum of our encounters, movements, the
information we access and the ones we provide, constitutes the never-ending
creating process that many have called identity.
These encounters usually take
place in the many groups that individuals are part of in real life (family,
nation, associations, etc.) and which give a particular imprint on our being, a
particular touch, if we come back to the sculptor’s movement. Online, individuals
become part of a new community, a “communication community” (in the sense of
Knoblauch[3]) with different codes that
remain quite similar and connected to real life ones nevertheless. These platforms
and interactions that are mediated (on internet, social media) are gaining an
increasing importance while direct interaction progressively decreases (you
probably meet physically with your extended family less often than you
post/read content on your Instagram/Twitter).
Jean-Claude Kaufman[4] underwent a thorough
review of the process of identification or as he calls it: the invention of
self. The concept of invention is exactly what is analysed here. It does not
allude to the creation, ex-nihilo (since scientists have proved that nature
abhors a vacuum) rather the chosen and semi-conscious process of arranging the
inborn and acquired elements to define oneself.
Goffman puts it pretty
accurately, “The expressive coherence
that is required in performances points out a crucial discrepancy between our
all-too-human selves and our socialized selves. As human beings we are
presumably creatures of variable impulse with moods and energies that change
from one moment to the next. As characters put on for an audience, however, we
must not be subjects to ups or downs. A certain bureaucratization of the spirit
is expected so that we can be relied upon to give a perfectly homogeneous performance at every appointed time.”
Identity, if taken as this cry
for recognition by others as what we ought to be, is invented, built and
showcased as the needed price or sacrifice for a successful socialization. When
performing, we strive to show coherence and composure, sacrificing what we
truly are, sometimes. We are what we seem but can only seem what we claim to
be, a successful product to which our society contributes greatly.
I remember being told, as a
debuting TV anchor, “when you are live, you are what the audience sees.
Whatever might happen backstage, they only get to see what you are giving
them”. I wouldn’t understand it until I was faced with the kind of show where
nothing goes as planned. Guests cancelling at the last minute, unusual
movements from the team that I could see from my comfortable seat in front of
the camera, technical issues that I was informed of in my headsets. Yes, that
kind of a day. Never have I felt more the need to perform well, despite the
incongruous conditions.
Performing well often means
acting “as expected” despite or regardless of what you would want to do or
exert. On social media, our engagements will sometimes be accompanied by
thoughts like “what would people think of me when they read this”, “is it
appropriate for someone like me”.
But if society is one, then
how to expect it to produce the needed diversity and multiple layers that are a
requisite for individuals to be what they truly are: authentic and a singled
out entity created through matter, thought process and non-visible, spiritual
movements.
I argue that individuals have
an inherent capacity to select some traits more than others, and should do so
in a mindful and intentional way. Today, maybe more or differently than in
previous generations, the positions/behaviours we adopt in the public place and
on social media, i.e. how we “perform”, allow us to fit (or not) in the society
as we imagine it. It shapes us.
It is only by becoming aware
and conscious of how we are shaped by our environment and our encounters that
we can be more “objective” in how we are inventing ourselves, “fitting” in our
society (being a good citizen that follows rules and social norms) but also
allowing us to be a creative member, authentic and ready to be different in
one’s own and beautiful way. That way only we can perform the one role that no
one else can perform, our own.
[2] Ganda, Madison, "Social Media and Self:
Influences on the Formation of Identity and Understanding of Self through
Social Networking Sites" (2014). University Honors Theses. Paper 55.
[3]Knoblauch, H. (2009).
"Kommunikationsgemeinschaften. Überlegungen zur kommunikativen
Konstruktion einer Sozialform." In Hitzler, R., Honer, A. & Pfadenhauer, M. (eds.). Posttraditionale
Gemeinschaften: Theoretische und ethnographische Erkundungen. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
pp. 73-88.
[4] Jean Claude Kaufman, L’invention de Soi : Une théorie de l’identité, Paris, Armand,
2004.
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