As human beings we strive to present the best image of ourselves to others whether that be in everyday life or across a digital platform to people we may or may not know. Which prompts the question: do we really know anyone?
Everyone desires to have friends, colleagues etc., think highly of them and so aim to only show our best qualities which constitutes putting on a performance, which changes as a result of the type of environment the interaction is taking place in Goffman (2022). For example, the way in which we act in a more casual setting like being in a pub has different expectations compared to being in a more profesional environment like a staff meeting at work, and so in order to come across as the best version of ourseleves we will change/alter the way in which we behave depending on the social situation we are in.
This idea of ‘performing’ in social situations hasn’t changed even in the creation of the digital world. With the constant development of social media it is becoming more and more normalised to promote different ‘versions’ of yourself,across different social media platforms, compared to how you would present yourself in a day to day environment, sometimes fabricating a different/altered reality Couldry and Hepp (2018).
Typically people present what they view as the ‘best version’ of themselves on social media as they wish to appear to have a fun and interesting life to those that view their social media pages thus creating this performance for their followers. For example, on Instagram most people appear to only post on their accounts when they are travelling, with friends etc as a way to broadcast their life to be more exciting than the mundane life most of us are living. Whereas, platforms like Tiktok and Snapchat often provide a more ‘authentic’ view of a person with people posting more of their everyday lives on these platforms. However, as this content is still being posted for people to view it is likely that the level of autheniticity is still not displaying ones real self as we are always thinking about what people may think whether this be unconsciously or not.
For example; Chris Olsen – American tiktok sensation, is well known for his ‘realistic’ and ‘relatable’ tiktok posts about his struggles with mental health. Olsen uses multiple social media platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram and has a large following across both. Just like most influencers, Olsen had a second tiktok account of which contained a smaller following in case anything were to happen to his primary account. However, recently ths account has been made private and so only certain people are able to follow and engage with his content. This suggests to followers that they are receiving a more authentic version of Chris as he is able to ‘be himself’ due to the account being private. However, this content is still being posted for viewers to engage with and so arguably is he being his true self?
References:
Couldry,N. & Hepp, A. (2018) The mediated construction of reality pg 27
Goffman,E. (2022) ‘The presentation of self in everyday life’ , Contemporary Sociological Theory 4th Edition Pp 36-50
Images:
Featured image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/women-with-mirror-12264712/
Olsen’s accounts: https://www.tiktok.com/@notolsennchris https://www.tiktok.com/@chris
