"Identity as it emerges in the mind of an individual cannot be separated from social processes and interactions." As a Comm. Studies major, I've heard it a thousand times...you are who you think you are, but also who everyone else thinks you are. But it never seemed more evident than in the Facebook case study by Katie Ellis. Even though I already unconsciously knew it, what I 'learned' from this article is my personal identity is in fact selected from an abundance of social identities. I have many roles; husband, father, student, friend, teammate, son, etc. But which do I choose to represent to the world, and myself, who I am? Interestingly enough, I chose a photo for my Fb profile of my wife and I hugging each other in formal attire at our best friends' wedding. As the article suggests, when I maintain my Fb page (and this blog ;-), I am selecting a 'me' to project to the world and to myself. Am I trying to show the world I look good enough in a tie to land a hottie wife, or am I simply trying to convince myself of that? The answer is both.
I also find it incredibly interesting that George Mead, who was the first (in the 1920's) to say one's self is established through communication, was dead on and would have had a field day with Facebook. Katie Ellis' views are totally in line with what Mead was saying, and I agree with her in that Mead's theories have never been more evident than in the age of the Internet, where it's unique social context allows these behaviors to be accurately studied.
Lastly, I would like to argue with Tara Brabazon. Does she really think we can't separate 'real' news from the Fb news feeds? If anything, I think the opposite is true. Today we are constantly forced to sift through videos of water-skiing squirrels and other crap in order to find accurate, trustworthy information...and I have noticed that we are becoming very adept at it. Maybe I'm not as addicted to the 'social landscape' on Fb as some, but I still believe we can equate what's relevant, and what's little more than entertainment, quite well.
Until next time, this is Sharxjay signing off.
I don't understand how it can be possible to be both who you think you are AND who other people think you are....??? There are multiple identities for a given person, but who they are is the culmination of those identities....or something to that effect, right?
ReplyDeleteI promise I'm not cracking on your age or anything like that (promise, scout's honor if I was a scout), but I think that because you didn't grow up with Facebook that there's some distance and separation that you have that many youth do not. Nonetheless, more and more articles are coming out saying that those of "older" generations are the popular newbies of social media. I don’t believe they need to deal with issues such as identity and the like. I believe her comment isn't a blanket statement for everyone, just a particular portion of the population.
I lean to hope that we are becoming more and more skilled at separating fact from fiction, but the lines separating the two I believe unfortunately are becoming more and more blurred, ignored, and discarded.
Sharxjay,
ReplyDeleteI think this post has been my favorite to read of all of them this week. I really like how you meld the two as being you. The online you and the in person you and how they fully overlap.
But my favorite part was the way you expressed how we are becoming more adept at filtering through the junk (i.e. water-skiing squirrels) to find real news and information. I almost feel like we are becoming better researchers because of this and we are more appreciative of the good stuff.
In reference to Jewels’ comment:
I think I am in Jay’s boat here, I did not grow up with FB, or the internet, well not until I was 15 that is. I think that starting out on the internet when it was still new was a different world, we had things like IRC and ICQ and everyone but me used AOL (I was on a Linux box, though my first PC was a Commador 64, still have it). So there was a different kind of social networking going on, we also had a different way of creating self-image because self-image was not inclusive of the internet for many of us. So I think you are right, this was not at the general population but at a segment of it.
Perhaps my view of information on the internet is based on this way of growing up. I was 21 when I gamed on the internet for the first time and I was 25 before I played xBox. I still have my 8-bit Nintendo and I remember when N64 was hot stuff. I think some of these relics of technology, while modern, are out dated, but still hold value of who I am and where I have been and maybe these are the things that have hindered my ability to be the self. Think about my parents though….they still have pong, it is the most addictively mind numbing game I have ever played. My dad got his business degree from SJSU in the 70’s and he told me stories about “the computer” they had…it was as big as the room and it used punch cards. My dad is not on FB, but my mom is and so her sense of self on there is totally different from mine, and mine is different from the generation after me.