Multiple Facets of Identity: 2nd Iteration

Our group has been considering the possibility of formatting our final project for the medium of a website. This website would be formatted simply, similarly to a blog, with all of our videos and posts available. Because we want to show how our ideas all connect, we plan to film multiple videos. One video will be an introductory video, in which we all briefly introduce our ideas. The remaining videos will show two of us at a time in a scripted discussion of how our topics pertain to each other. While we didn't have time over Easter weekend to film, the following script will be used for our introductory video. Please feel free to comment with feedback!

Kotahi: “Watch me whip. Watch me nae nae.” Sound familiar to anyone? This is one of the most recent fads that was spread over all social media platforms, and took over my news feed in a matter of days. The random dance move is just one example of how mass mediated material easily takes over our news feeds, which is what we spend the majority of our time looking at in our free time.

Our fashion, attitude and so called “swag”, to name a few, is consistently dictated by what we like, follow or view on social media.

I’ll use this picture to point out why I posted it… the only purpose really being because I want people to know I’m ok at dancing … this will hopefully back up the point that I fall prey to the “likes and followers” syndrome as well. It’s so easy to follow the social media norm.

Before we know it, the world starts looking like less of individual minds all working together to act, and more like a giant glob of similar “totes adorbs peeps” that are acted upon.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms are becoming more of an opportunity to sell and become popular rather than its originally intended purpose: to share who you are as an individual with the world.

This ad backs up my point about how social media platforms have become a form of business to sell product … they invade our space. They don’t allow us to choose what we want to see.

Therefore, what? If we continue down this road of globalization, we will become prone to dictation from social media to define who we are. What are you missing by following the crowd that makes you “think” you’re being the black sheep through social media? 

Jolene: Unlike a big performance, stage fright doesn’t keep us from speaking up in front of our peers found in social media or uploading videos of ourselves to our youtube channels. We all rely on a false sense of security that no one is out on the web that wants to hurt us. We all freely share who we are and what we like our public profiles, yet are we aware of how much information can be found and used against us? 

How would you feel if your identity was being taken and recorded without your knowledge? Despite our best efforts, our online security is compromised when others take, record, misuse and extort our personal information without our permission. I believe that we have the right to have our online identities protected from unauthorized viewers. 

Katelyn: In today's world, how do you get your initial impression of someone? 

If you're anything like me, you stalk (I mean...take a look at) their social media accounts. There you'll find all sorts of pertinent information: what they look like, their sense of humor, the most important relationships they have (there's a reason that some girlfriends get upset if they aren't featured every #womancrushwednesday), their stance on politics, what kind of music they listen to, their religious beliefs, their moral code...the list goes on and on.

As a society, we are relying more and more on technology. We are finding our reality amid the 0's and 1's of the virtual world.

We perceive others based off of their social media profiles, and what is reality if not your perception of it? 

 Because so much information is publicly available online, employers have a responsibility to make sure that the person they are hiring well represents with the public image their company tries to portray. There are certainly risks there—after all, can’t anyone be anyone online? Because of the risks associated with online identities, we as individuals have a moral responsibility to portray ourselves honestly.

Mitchell: I don’t use social media very much. I don’t like spending hours online, looking at the lives of others. I prefer to keep my own life private, and share with people the news of my life in person.

There is a trend though to make everything public. Your craziness or rude behavior can somehow be validated if you get enough comments and likes on Facebook. If you can post daily pictures on Instagram of the perfect little things of your life, to a point where people recognize you at the local grocery store for your pictures, you’ve somehow “made it”.

Along with all these pictures and posts comes a back story though: strong opinions. If you don’t like a picture, or find it offensive, you had better let them know that they’re wrong and they’ve disrespected an entire race. If their post doesn’t fall in line with your “friend’s” radical views, you’ve just become the target of a retaliatory hate-post.

This concept is so new. Ten years ago, nobody in the world used Facebook. Nobody cared about their high school acquaintance’s younger brother’s political opinion. With a new Digital Age, we’ve ushered in a new identity wave. You are defined by your posts and your comments.

I say full-sail ahead. We can’t be held back by our technology-less past. We can’t try to define how social media should be used and what’s proper, because it didn’t exist before a few years ago. If we want to learn what social media says about us, we need to charge forward, regardless of the outcome. Going forward, head on, will mold our future identities, and form the identity of society.