28 April 2012
One question that I've been musing over recently is whether or not you can maintain your own sense of personal identity in the modern day and age? It seems that with the rise of the social network, and websites like 'twitter' and 'tumblr' people have started desperately vying for their own voice, to the extent that they lose it entirely. They get involved in activities or hobbies for the purpose of looking 'cool' or 'different' as oppose to any real passion for an industry or hobby. The Internet allows a person to totally reinvent themselves; they can take on a persona that suits what they wish to portray to the world, but you have to wonder if that is at the sacrifice of their true identity?
Social networks encourage exhibitionism, they prompt you to expose to the world how you are thinking or feeling at any given moment, and that has to lead to anxieties about whether or not you're truly 'interesting enough' for people to care. When people ask if I'm on twitter, they normally follow up with 'how many followers do you have?' It's as if we have come to a point where a person's worth is measured on how the Internet community perceives them. You're attractiveness is weighed up on how many comments your latest default photo has, or how many members of the opposite sex want to be your Internet buddies. To gain more followers you have to be perceived as 'interesting' or 'individual' and the easiest way to do so is to suddenly become a model or designer, or shamelessly describe yourself as an entrepreneur when all you have to show for it is a dodgy clothing label you set up on Myspace. We exploit ourselves shamelessly on the Internet, we are compelled brag about things we've achieved, just so we can increase our standing online, and to what end?
The concern is how willingly people embrace the erosion of their individual selves. Members of tumblr often boast about how they 'never log off' or have 'this many followers' and there is no apparent desire to live outside of the fictional realm that is the online world. I have seen 15 year olds quite willingly post pictures of themselves half naked to join up with tag trends such as 'topless Tuesday' which are likely to get you more followers, and I have done my bit to report their blogs for it too, but the fact that they would do this in the first place shows how the online community has a lack of consequence that can have dangerous implications. The social network encourages narrative incohesiveness, and a culture of sensationalism that has no bearing on the structure of the real world. It is a commodity that is greatly abused, and it is too easy to say things you regret, just delete them from existence later, pretending you never posted it in the first place.
Personally, I think I would struggle without social interaction online, I have grown up with messengers and groups and online profiles, it would be a big step to erase that completely. But I do wonder what price we are paying for defining ourselves on the responses of others? Perhaps personal identity can be maintained as long as you have a clearly sense of self both offline and online, but I do wonder how you can develop interpersonal skills and individualism when the majority of your social interaction relies upon pixels.
On the plus side, the Internet is an excellent source of documenting your life, and it fascinates me that in years to come my grandchildren and their children will be able to look me up online to gain an insight into not only my life, but my personality as well. The Internet is also fantastic outlet for ideas that in 'the real world' you would be unable to find like minded individuals to share them with, and you can grow and develop your knowledge on a subject of interest just by speaking to others who you may not necessarily ever meet.
It is hard to say whether there is a right or wrong in this situation, and there are strong arguments focusing on both viewpoints, but I believe it would not hurt for people to be encouraged to think a little more about whether their online selves do the reality justice.
The Internet And Individuality • Opuss № I