Last year I deleted Snapchat and Instagram. I immediately felt a wave of relief. I no longer felt subject to the pressures of consistently posting my life online. I could finally focus on the real world.
But after a few weeks, I realized the online world seemed just as real as my day to day life, and I was missing out on it. People would say things like, “Oh my God, did you see so-and-so’s Instagram post?” And “Check your Snapchat!”
I could do none of those things.
Not participating in social media allowed me to focus more on my academic and social life, but it also disconnected me from my friends. As a high schooler, I had stripped myself of an identity important to my generation.
What differences exist between our online and offline selves? Can our social media profiles define the “real” us? Where is the boundary between the real you and how you present yourself on social media?
An Exhibition, Not a Performance
Sociologist Erving Goffman argues that the self is a performance in which a person actively constructs a portrayal of themself according to perceived audience reactions (Goffman 1959). However, on social media, we lack a direct connection to our audience and instead become the designers of an exhibition that we put on display (Hogan 2010). An exhibition entails a display of artifacts, as opposed to an interaction between individuals. On social media, the primary purpose is to display a version of the self to a wide online audience; the artifacts––posts, comments, and stories––that we construct become our presentation of self online.
On social media, the loss of bodily interaction means one must adapt the method of how they present themselves to the world (Zhao 2005). Aspects of impromptu facial expression, body language, and physical touch disappear; instead, profiles consist of highly curated images and text aimed to display an idealized self. Through these more limited means, users select their best qualities and delete those that don’t reflect a model version of the self.
Self Reflection or Self Absorption?
Posting on social media can at times feel authentic, as if it is a journal. However, it is explicitly crafted for an audience, regardless of how personal it feels. So what does this say about the purpose of posting online? Are users reflective or over-absorbed with themselves?
A study by Zizi Papacharissi, a communication professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, and Dr. Andrew Mendelson, associate dean at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, argues there is a “collectively performed narcissism” present in photographs posted on college students’ Facebook accounts (Mendelson and Papacharissi 2010:269). However, the students’ narcissism does not evolve from selfish desires; instead, the exhibition of artifacts they display are a drive to connect themselves to others online.
Managing the Front and Back Stage Online
Erving Goffman’s (1959) theory also discusses how, in traditional self presentation, one’s front stage self is a presentation to others and one’s back stage self is where one prepares for social presentations. On social media, the front stage is one’s online profile and the back stage is the offline self that constructs the profile.
With the presence of social media, rather than existing in one position or the other, we can occupy both at the same time (Zhao 2005). For instance, one’s offline self can be in a back stage position, where they are relaxed and do not feel a need to attend to any audience. But at the same moment in time, one’s online self can be in a front stage position, where a polished and idealized exhibition represent the self. The physical, offline self and the non-physical, online self exist independently; yet they are both you, coexisting in different spaces at simultaneous instances.
So… Who Am I?
Together, the online and offline self combine to create the self. Both can be real. Both can be constructed. Both online and offline selves maintain social norms based on one’s perceived audience. Both have wins and both have shortcomings.
But it can be difficult to identify where these two selves diverge and overlap. Are our social media pages the closest we can ever be to attaining our ideal self? Can we ever become our ideal self in both the online and offline worlds?
References:
Goffman, Erving. 1956. “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.” New York, NY: Anchor Books.
Hogan, Bernie. 2010. “The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online.” Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 30(6). Retrieved October 19, 2022. (https://doi.org/10.1177/0270467610385893).
Mendelson, Andrew L., and Zizi Papacharissi. 2010. “Look At Us: Collectively Performed Narcissism in College Student Facebook Photo Galleries.” Pp. 251-274 in A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, edited by Z. Papacharissi. New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
Zhao, Shanyang. 2005. “The Digital Self: Through the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others.” Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction 28(3). Retrieved October 19, 2022. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/si.2005.28.3.387).
