#DIGC101 Second Reflection Essay
How important is self presentation in Social Networking Sites?
The creation of my web project incorporated creating an online persona through a Social Networking Site. They way I chose to present myself offered up some characteristics that are uniquely found only in these Social Networking Sites. Through presentation I was able construct a completely fiction identity, piecing together all the traits I wanted, putting me completely in control. Through use of Social Networking Sites I joined a community that gave my persona the needed audience and link to other users of the Internet. At my disposal was a variety of way to present my blogger and that is what makes the Internet unique. The ability of a user to be able to produce and control the content in certain areas of the medium, like Social Networking Sites.
The way we use the Internet has changed culturally, due to the establishment of Social Networking Sites. The function and the way users, use Social Networking Sites doesn’t differ that much to other functions the Internet already offered. To keep in touch with some one on the other side of the world we could send them an email, now we comment on their profile. To chat with someone in different time code we could have always used instant messaging, now users tend to favour Facebook chatting. In fact all the functions on most Social Networking Sites, aren’t relative new technologies, rather they incorporate the idea of combining all these uses of the Internet into one platform. Certain Social Networking Sites however offer a new element to interaction; the way users are able to present ones self. On the Internet anyone can be anybody and Social Networking Sites have just added to this point. Anyone can take on any form of identity they wish. From creating a profile of the opposite gender, to just simply choosing the best profile picture to represent ones self.
Social Networking has the ability to establish online communities. Users are often drawn together by common thoughts, views or even interests. Users can control what communities they established themselves or their online identity with. This often defines the presentation one puts forward for them self on the site. For example to belong to the Movie reviews community often show that the users has a strong interest or passion in reviewing movies. The platform of the Social Networking Sites then links the member to the users who also enjoy reviewing movies or who would like to view their similar content. It is a platform of interaction, but at the same time it can be a way to define the identity of the users.
Social Networking Sites also allow people to present themselves in either a public or private ways, and sometimes not in the initial use the identity was generated for. There has been some argument over the relationships between Social Networking Sites and ones occupation or job. For example should “the way one person chooses to represent themselves in one online community affect the way they are preserved in the real community”. When going for a job interview at a childcare centre, should it matter that the applicant is an online metal fan. Should information be used to define someone, if it was never really conesentully given. Social Networking Sites can also link people to all areas of their personality that they present differently to different real life communities. A simple goggle search should allow someone to see all the pictures (profile picture at minimum) that people choose to present themselves with in Social Networking Sites. It has blurred the lines of public and private information, claiming that no content is really private on the Internet. As technologies have allowed the line between business and home to blur, this brings up the argument that when you physically leave the workspace, you can still be held as a reflection upon the business. That means if someone chooses to take part in an unethical online community that for example encourages pedophilia or anorexia, than should that presentation then be able to be reflected back to others they represent i.e. their employers.
Online communities within Social Networking Sites also have cultural impacts. Using the example of Facebook, arguably the most popular Social Networking Sites today, it has managed to re-define the word ‘friend’. As we today see the term friend now as a figure rather than a close companion, due to a sort of cultural practice of collecting ‘friends’ on Facebook. The more friends someone has does not always mean they are better off, it now means more numbers within a certain categories of cyber popularity. It comes back to the way people choose to present themselves online. Just because someone has hundreds more friends than someone else doesn’t necessarily mean people see them as a better companion, rather that now people see that this person is just more connected to others within this community. One who is seen to have lots on social connections with others is classed as being more popular or more successful on Facebook. The same can be said to the cultural stigma surrounding young children and online networking. It is also seen as culturally inappropriate for young children (under the age of about 10) to have their own Social Networking Site like Facebook or Myspace. This is because children are seen as to vulnerable and innocent to the world of online networking, yet over a vast majority of the world population use this as a means of communication (Wheeler, 2009). It is almost the equivalent of saying that to protect children they shouldn’t talk out loud, just incase on day the talk to the wrong person. It is the way users are presented. A child under ten could create an account and say they are over 30 and form several adult relationships with others, again it is just the age number they choose to present to the community that they are judged on.
As forms of social media and user-generated content sites began to grow in popularity, “websites focused on media sharing began implementing Social Networking Sites features and becoming types of Social Networks themselves” (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). Some examples of these computer mediated relationship forming in sites that where social networking probably wasn’t the first function include the likes of Flick.com. Photo users were drawn to similar photographic interest and bonded, or created a community. Others also include the relationships form in YouTube.com, over video sharing and commenting and LastFM.com, which discusses radio listening themes of another media.
Online Communities with Social Networking Sites can contain certain amounts of anonymity. There will always be a certain false element on the Internet. People can hide behind the presenting an anonymous personality. However anonymity on the Internet isn’t always a bad thing though, it can only really be harmful if placed in the wrong hands. “If everyone on the Internet was anonymous, these privacy issues would not occur” (Private Prozy, 2009). This means if everyone on the Internet hid behind either anonymous profiles or fake profiles, we would not have the problem with people being able to access personal information if users never offered it.
Through presentation women chose to put their faith into Social Networking more than men. It is found that on most social networking sites, more women choose to create and maintain profiles than men (McCandles, 2009). This may just mean more users claim the female gender than the male gender in the online registration. But women on Social Networking Sites often feel that the medium is a better communicator or a better link to allow relationship to form and develop rather than men. Or maybe its just has something to do with women and their obsession with socializing. For women and men of today’s millennium generation they always needed a way to present their “uniqueness, their specialness and garner the attention and praise of the masses. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter filled the bill” (Kwenskin, 2009). As Social Networking Sites now allow users to present quite narcissistic personalities and offer new and exciting mediums of computer mediated communications.
Social networking Sites are much more than forms of communications. They can take on many different styles of presentation of its users. From personal, fantasy to business and even professional. It can be seen as the way people analysis or assess the reputation of a users, despite it being ethically wrong to judge a book by its cover, others still do. With the easily accessibility of technology on the internet like being able to google another to find out information about them, the way we as users presents ourselves on the world wide web is becoming even more and more important. The cyber world ‘you’ now will have a way of being able to be reflected back to the real world you.
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Kwenskin, S. 2009. “On Narcissism, the Internet, and Social Networking Sites”. In Psychiatric Times: The Couch in Crisis. Issue 19, October 27th.
McCandles, D. 2009. “Chicks Rule! Gender Balance on Social Networking Sites”. Information is Beautiful. Accessed 31-10-09. http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/who-rules-the-social-web/
Private Proxy. 2009. “Anonymity, Good or Bad?”. Accessed 31-10-09. http://www.privateproxysoftware.com/Blog/anonymous-surfing/anonymity-good-or-bad/
Social Guy. 2009. “Survey Highlights Impact and Risks of Social Networking for UK”. Sociable Bog.com. Accessed 31st October. http://www.sociableblog.com/2009/11/02/impact-and-risks-of-social-networking-for-uk-businesses/
Wheeler, R. 2009. “How Young is Too Young For Social Networking?”. Timesunion.com. Accessed 31st October. http://blog.timesunion.com/albany/how-young-is-too-young-for-social-networking/2184/
Williams, H. 2009. “A Brief History of Social Networking Sites”. WebHost BootCamp. November 3rd.
