“When an individual appears before others, he will have many motives for trying to control the impression they receive of the situation.” —————Goffman, 1959
In the era of social media, each of us is engaged in a kind of “self” planning. We select photos, polish words, and showcase specific slices of our lives, meticulously crafting a digital identity that we hope will be seen and recognized by others.
The sociological basis of this phenomenon was revealed by the German sociologist Erving Goffman as early as half a century ago. In his book “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”, he proposed that human social interactions are like a stage performance – we present an idealized self on the “stage” and keep the real life hidden in the “backstage” (Goffman, 1959)
The social media in the digital world has brought this impression management to a stage that never ends.
Every update, every photo, is a performance; every like is like the applause of the audience.It makes people more eager to be seen, and it also makes it harder for them to distinguish whether the person shining on the screen is the real them or not.
The emergence of an ideal character design
A few years ago, a case of failed identity construction in the digital world sparked a nationwide academic controversy in China.
He was originally a prominent actor in the entertainment industry. Not only was his work outstanding, but he also held a doctoral degree from a top art university. On social media, he posted a photo of his graduation ceremony, creating a dual persona of “an actor and an outstanding student”.
The success of this kind of persona establishment not only stems from individual efforts, but also benefits from the structural mechanism of social media. As (boyd and Ellison, 2007) pointed out, social networks encourage individuals to establish their self-branding identities through visible symbols and interactions. The design of the platform – from avatars to profiles, from tags to topics – enables everyone to become the curator of their own image.
Thus, this actor performed an almost flawless impression management in the “front stage” of the digital world.
The moment of collapse
During a seemingly casual live broadcast, when a fan asked him if his paper could be found on the well-known academic website China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CNKI）, he inquired, “What is CNKI?”
Just a few words shattered the elaborate and glamorous persona he had meticulously constructed. For a newly graduated doctor, not knowing CNKI is like a chef not knowing the kitchen knife. This subconscious reaction reveals the inconsistency between “academic identity” and authenticity.
Psychologist Sherry Turkle (2011) pointed out that when the gap between digital identity and the real self is too large, people will fall into the situation of identity gap and authenticity crisis. This incoordination not only causes psychological anxiety, but is also likely to lead to real-world consequences – the virtual identity begins to negatively affect the reality.
Just as expected, in-depth public scrutiny revealed the truth of plagiarism and academic misconduct in the paper. This was followed by the revocation of the doctoral degree, the accountability of the supervisor, and the abrupt end of the career in the entertainment industry. This disintegration of one’s image has become a disintegration of credibility in reality.
The virtual mask of digital identity will eventually be revealed
This incident reveals a reality: digital identity is not a virtual game. When you use it to gain reputation, status and benefits in the real world, it is closely bound to your real credit.Goffman (1959) reminds us that performance is not inherently sinful, but the danger lies in our beginning to believe in our own roles.
Therefore, in the digital world, true wisdom lies not in performing flawlessly, but in the courage to make the performance infinitely close to the truth. Only when the “front stage” and the “back stage” tend to be consistent, will the digital mask not become a cage for reality.
As Boyd and Ellison (2007) put it, social media makes us “more connected“, but also “more visible“. What is truly worth being seen, perhaps, is not an impeccable “persona”, but a flesh-and-blood “self” with flaws and sincerity.
In the era of information overload and algorithm dominance, honesty, authenticity and self-reflection are becoming new scarce resources.In the digital world, building one’s self-image is not the hardest part – it’s being honest. The most powerful thing is not an image, but truth.
Refenerce：
Boyd, d., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210–230.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday Anchor.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York: Basic Books.
