Social Media Effects on Self Identification @selfidentification101-blog - Tumblr Blog

your online identity: now playing on computers near you

Try to remember a time you watched a movie or play that was really confusing, yet you still tried to interpret it until it was over. Well this scenario more or less is what other people go through when trying to interpret your social media. Sociologist Erving Goffman compared human online identities to theatre performances, where the “individual (the performer) sends social cues that are inferred and interpreted by an audience of observers who help shape the notion of the said individual’s identity.” While this is true for Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, it is especially emphasized through dating websites and apps like Tinder.

Turkle agrees with Goffman that our online identities are ever-changing and always being evaluated. She adds, “the practice of producing multiple online personae is sympotomatic of the inherent flux of human identity performance… we should think of ourselves as fluid, emergent, decentralized multiplicities, flexible and ever in process.” These “multiple online personae” Turkle is talking about can be relatable to all social media users. For example, you have a Facebook. In a week, you posted two pictures of things you did that week: one of you at a party, and another of you helping at an old-folk home. Some people may have only seen one of these pictures on their newsfeed, and therefore have one of two perceptions of you: that you are partying it up in college, or that you are a kindhearted and helpful person. Because of situations like this, we can understand that our audience contributes to the “resultant product and perception of [our own] identity.” The more pictures you add, the more peoples' ideas of you change.

Furthermore, Lisa Nakamura, a professor at University of Michigan, coined the term “identity tourists,” describing the “phenomenon of new media users constructing varied personae.” Similar to Goffman and Turkle’s arguments above, we can see a pattern that people struggle with keeping a consistent identity online. Dating media theorist Katie Davis confirms that our online profiles, “often are not exact reproductions of offline identity.” And as David Buckingham puts it, “it is difficult both cognitively and metacognitively to monitor all of one’s different selves and audiences.” This goes for all users of social media. Keeping track of even your own online identity can be difficult, especially when you don’t keep your imagined audience in mind. Our performative process online is ever-changing and dependent on many variables, and therefore can be interpreted differently by every person viewing your profile.

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Borrow, B. (2014, August 6). More Than Just a Pretty Profile: Exploring the social norms and technical affordances that shape and mediate identity performance on Tinder. Retrieved October 26, 2014.

5 primary practices of young users (on tinder)

As we know, many things affect how our online identities can be interpreted by our audiences. These 5 things below (adherence, subversion, discrepancy, obfuscation, and equivocation) demonstrate many things users of social media (not only Tinder) do to alter their own online identities.

1. Adherence: "[the users] impression of what is required of them when it comes to their processes of Participation and Representation on Tinder." i.e. a little blurb about yourself on your profile.

2. Subversion: those that are still exploring their identity or are not comfortable posting real pictures/ information of themselves online. i.e. your profile picture as a cat or your age as 101.

3. Discrepancy: "users represent themselves in a varied and at times, conflicting manner." i.e. users posting pictures representing different "versions" of themselves.

4. Obfuscation: using deliberately blurry or "embellished" pictures to "alter the viewer's impression of the users corporeal or physical self." i.e. filters

5. Equivocation: using group pictures to make it harder for viewers to tell who you are. Also using close-up pictures of body parts to hinder the viewers ability to see the users full appearance.

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Borrow, B. (2014, August 6). More Than Just a Pretty Profile: Exploring the social norms and technical affordances that shape and mediate identity performance on Tinder. Retrieved October 26, 2014.

Danah Boyd’s take on identity development through social media

When we first set up a profile for any social media website, we always try our best to convey who we really are. However, we may try to come across a certain (better) way, but our “performance is not always interpreted as we might expect.” Goffman calls this process of “performance, interpretation, and adjustment” impression management. Impression management is when people attempt to “define a situation through their behavior… by using contextual cues from the environment around them.”

For example, if someone liked your picture on Facebook, or commented on your picture, you would try to understand their reasoning for that action (maybe you know them and its normal, or maybe they liked your picture because they think your attractive and want you to know they think that). Because people have control and can carefully choose what they put online, our so called "digital bodies" are extremely hard to read and easy to misinterpret what people are actually trying to express online.

Boyd thinks learning how to "manage impressions" is a vital social skill in today's generation. And I completely agree. People are now more than ever analyzing every little thing that you do online, where subtle things such as a period, exclamation point, or all caps can significantly change the meaning and tone behind what you were trying to say.

Moreover, Boyd concludes that, “over time, we learn how to make meaning out of a situation, others’ reactions, and what we are projecting of ourselves, and learn to interpret these reactions and adjust our behavior.” Learning how to read these social cues and how to appropriately react to them is now key to socializing in society. Ultimately, your friends will interpret your online behaviors and create a true, or false, perception of who you are (on and offline).

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Boyd, D. (2007). Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life. MacArthur foundation series on digital learning–Youth, identity, and digital media volume, 119-142.

Texting, email, posting, all of these things let us present the self as we want to be. We get to edit, and that means we get to delete, and that means we get to retouch the face, the voice, the flesh, the body--not too little, not too much, just right.

Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

Even really really ridiculously good looking people like Zoolander struggle with their identity

the need to belong (on and offline)

According to one study on “Teens’ social media use and collective action,” researchers concluded that “teens’ need to belong was positively associated with the amount of time they reported spending on social networking sites (even when controlling for gender, race, and SES). While “extraversion and openness to experiences were positively associated with social media use… young adults’ emotional stability was negatively associated with their social media use.” This means the more someone socializes in life, the more they socialize online as well. On the other end, the more emotionally unstable someone is, the less they socialize online.

However, one thing social media offers is an educational platform for socially awkward adolescents. Although increased social media use may be encouraging unsocial behavior, it can also help teens socialize online and work on basic communication skills through group chats and online messaging. “Lonely adolescents are more likely to experiment with their identities online by leveraging the relative anonymity of the internet to learn how to interact with people.” And if teens aren’t that comfortable with their identities or socializing yet, social media is a great transition for expressing who you really are.

But then again research shows us that “Teens’ online social behavior has also been found to be associated with levels of loneliness and the need to belong,” thus face-to-face interactions are the best method in developing social skills. As Sherry Turkle noted in her book Alone Together, "We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Our networked life allows us to hide from each other." Most teens today would agree that it is easier communicating online or through texting rather than meeting in person. The changes in how individuals are choosing to communicate in our generation are effecting how people socialize and in tun, how social they become.

In social psychology, the need to belong “refers to the motivation to be associated with others and to be accepted by them.” Luckily social media fulfills that need for many teens, and “people are drawn to [SNSs] primarily for personal connections and sharing their activity with a growing number of friends.” These online friends and followers make people feel like they really are socializing, and regardless if you are the most outgoing person in the world or have a social anxiety disorder, social media creates a platform where your online identity can be whatever you want it to be.

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Seo, H., Houston, J. B., Knight, L. A. T., Kennedy, E. J., & Inglish, A. B. (2013). Teens’ social media use and collective action. New Media & Society, 1461444813495162.

Turkle, S. (2013). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. S.l.: Basic Books.

^Some people hide behind their computer screens because they aren't comfortable with their offline identity.

Danah Boyd's take on identity and social media. (skip to 2:13)

wash your hands, emotions are contagious!

Recently experimental evidence has proven that “emotional contagion” can spread through online social networks. What does this mean exactly? It means when you are scrolling through Facebook and stumble upon a sequence of positive posts, it means you are more likely to post something positive after seeing them.

Through an experiment led by Facebook’s Core Data Science Team, it was validated that “exposure to emotions led people to change their own posting behaviors.” Although, having exposure to "the happiness of others may actually be depressing to us producing an 'alone together' social comparison effect". But nonetheless, “emotions expressed by friends via online social networks, influence our own moods”(Kramer).

American philosopher and psychologist William James created the notion of “ideomotor action [which means that] merely thinking about a behavior increases the tendency to engage in that behavior”(Chartrand). Much like chameleons colors changing, peoples’ attitudes and behaviors change online. This so called “chameleon effect refers to nonconscious… behaviors of one's interaction partners, such that one's behavior passively and unintentionally changes to match that of others in one's current social environment.” Further explaining this phenomenon where your friends Facebook posts influence your own online experience.

For this reason, if you want to have a more positive social media experience, you should surround yourself with more positive friends online. Applying this to the Uses and Gratification Theory (Baran/Davis), people can now use social media to generate positivity, and conversely to brighten other peoples’ days without even knowing it! And of course the more positivity you project online, the more positive people will perceive your online identity. Thus, social media can be a means for establishing a more positive online identity for yourself, which is directly proportional with your offline life.

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Baran, S., & Davis, D. (1995). Mass communication theory: Foundations, ferment, and future. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub.

Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and social interaction. Journal of personality and social psychology, 76(6), 893.

Kramer, A. D., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201320040.

your social (media) identity

According to Naomi Ellemers, a researcher of social psychology at Free Universiy in Amersterdam, “three components may contribute to one's social identity: a cognitive component (a cognitive awareness of one's membership in a social group- self-categorization), an evaluative component (a positive or negative value connotation attached to this group membership- group self-esteem), and an emotional component (a sense of emotional involvement with the group-affective commitment).”

Many times people are reluctant to join social networking sites such as Facebook but eventually give in in order to “stay in the loop” with their friends and the latest technology. But giving in is almost necessary according to Ellemers’ theory for developing your social identity in our generation. Signing up for Facebook establishes a cognitive component (awareness that you are now apart of the Facebook world). As you play around with Facebook, you realize if you have a positive or negative involvement with Facebook (evaluative component). Lastly, you will gain an emotional component as you spend more and more time working on your profile and your new online world.

Before you joined Facebook I’m sure you heard people warn you saying, “watch out it’s addicting!” You may not think it will significantly effect you, but once you give in, you know it is true. Joining Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tinder or any other social media site, makes you feel glued to that new world, making you want to work to create your online identity to be as appealing as possible. This is a large part of establishing your self-identity in today’s day and age. People’s social media pages have become a part of their offline identities, and for some that is a positive or negative thing. Some people can post harmless photos to their pages. Others may struggle by being tagged in photos showing disruptive behavior, leading to negative life consequences such as being fired, kicked off teams, or family and friend problems. While social media can aid in creating our identities, it is essential to remember that one post, picture, or status can change your identity and your life forever.

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Ellemers, N., Kortekaas, P. and Ouwerkerk, J. W. (1999), Self-categorisation, commitment to the group and group self-esteem as related but distinct aspects of social identity. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., 29: 371–389.

While many girls on social media try to emulate how Victoria Secret Angels look, it's important to remember that the perfect body comes in all shapes and sizes and that your on and offline identity should be representative of who you are, not what you think you're supposed to be.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-29958907

People are lonely. The network is seductive. But if we are always on, we may deny ourselves the rewards of solitude."

Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other

impacts of persuasive beauty images on girls self-concepts

Media affects everyone whether they believe it or not. The third person effect is where “people believe others are more strongly effected by media portrayals then they themselves are.” Regardless of who you are, media images alter what is “normative” or “ideal” in your perception of body image.

In Milkie’s study, she showed that both black and white teens interpreted magazine models as “unrealistic.” However, white teens were more likely to “make social comparisons to the perfect physical appearances in media images because they knew that these images were what ‘everybody’ wants.”

Milkie also concludes, “social comparisons affect how we learn about and see ourselves in relation to individuals, groups, or social categories. Social comparison theories suggest that we tend to compare ourselves with similar others, though we have selectivity in making such comparisons, that is relative freedom to select the referents by whom we evaluate ourselves.” Thus, minorities felt they did not have to emulate these feminine images in media as much as whites, and seemingly didn’t make those same social comparisons. All in all, media and social media can negatively effect our ideas of who we are, especially at young ages. But luckily, social media users do have some control over who they are friends with and who they follow. Therefore, selectivity helps people associate with others who are similar, and ultimately creates the path that shapes our on and offline identities.

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Milkie, M. A. (1999). Social comparisons, reflected appraisals, and mass media: The impact of pervasive beauty images on Black and White girls' self-concepts. Social Psychology Quarterly, 190-210.

One picture that went viral recently is this picture of Kim Kardashian on the cover of Paper magazine. Most viewers of this would agree that it an extremely unrealistic depiction of the average female body, and therefore most teenage girls would not make a social comparison in this situation.

sidyouth

I think a lot of self-identity and inner-personal development is hampered by consumerism and capitalism because we see ourselves as a reflection of the TV, rather than as a reflection of the people who are around us, truly.

Aloe Blacc (via sidyouth)

word-stuck

from Latin ipse (self, himself) + English -ity (submitted by massestuck)

These pictures show what the participants in Cazzato's study (below) looked at. Some were given the distorted images (on the left and right) and were asked to make them as close to 0 (the original) as possible. In the middle is a normal, undistorted picture of a participant (0). On the left is -50 slimmer and on the right +50 fatter.

the science behind body perception

An experiment done by Valentina Cazzato et al. studied how healthy women (around 20 years old) view their own and others’ bodies. Using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over different parts of the brain they investigated their causative roles in perceptual representations of one’s own and others’ body.

After having subjects adjust distorted pictures of either themselves or of their friends to what they thought was closest to their actual size, there happened to be an “underestimation bias for both subjective and intersubjective judgements." This means the subjects thought of themselves, and others, as thinner than they actually were. While these results could seem beneficial, women are nonetheless guilty of perceiving others thinner than themselves, which contributes to “body dissatisfaction in perfectly healthy women through unfavorable social comparison processes."

One thing the researchers could have changed in the experiment is that they should have randomly sampled the participants in the the study. All of the participants volunteered and went to the same university, and therefore there could have lead to a response bias in the results, threatening the validity of the experiment.

However, we can still conclude that, "the way we perceive ourselves influences the perception of others and the way that we perceive others, in turn, affects our self-perception.” Unfortunately, this negative spiral makes women constantly unsatisfied with their body image. As we use social media and pictures of models pop up on our newsfeed, we are guilty of instantaneously comparing ourselves to them. Whether we want to be them, kill them, or marry them, how we perceive others will ultimately contribute to how we view and identify ourselves.

Cazzato, V., Mian, E., Sereno, A., Mele, S., & Urgesi, C. (2014, July 22). Distinct contributions of extrastriate body area and temporoparietal junction in perceiving one's own and others' body - Online First - Springer. Retrieved December 2, 2014.

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