The very interesting even though somewhat confusing discussion today in class about what someone may believe as fact may not be a fact to someone else or what was fact in the past may not be fact in the present or the future. When thinking of things for my blog I was trying to connect that to identity. I started thinking about internet identity and how someones identity on the internet may not be their identity in real life and how does that fit into Mead's or Cooley's view of the self?
I first tried to brainstorm a way someone could present an identity through the internet.
blogs
facebook
myspace
dating websites
were about as far as I got. I then started comparing my Facebook and this blog to how I think of myself in real life. I think my Facebook is truly a social self (my definition of a social self - being you act different to different people so your social self is always in flux and acts how I would want the person I am with to see me). It is created in part of how others view me or how I want them to see me. But, my Mom and Dad are also on Facebook. I monitor my facebook because I don't want my Mom to see some of the pictures or read some of the comments.
On Facebook I also display the good part of myself. Some people use status updates to relay their feelings but I prefer to only have fun statuses or fun pictures. I can always set my profile picture to one where I like the way I look and I can detag any pictures that I think look bad. Thats not really me though. Or, its a different me. Or I am the person on Facebook when I am actually on the internet to the Facebook webpage or to the person I get a friend request from someone I don't really know so they really only know me from what my Facebook profile shows.
If they only know me on Facebook their view of me is not very accurate or not fact. So what they think is fact is not fact to someone who knows me in person such as my roommates or family. So in this case the fact that one person thinks the other person may think is false.
I am starting to confuse myself. I am not sure where I am getting on this or where my thoughts lead but I am going to think about this subject more. Let me know what you think. I actually think I may be totally crazy and this makes no sense to anyone but me.
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Heather,
ReplyDeleteI think it makes a lot of sense! Sure, people who see you on facebook only see one side of you, but isn't that the same in real life? When you work on a job, you probably only present your positive side to an employer, or at least what you think they will see as positive. Who you are with your friends isn't who you are with your parents and that isn't who you are with your professors. I don't think people ever really expect to get a true idea of who someone is by looking at their profile on facebook, because the fact of the matter is that a lot of people pad their internet pages (my sister and her 16 year old son do not make >$250,000 per year as their myspace pages say, and the picture I have on my facebook shows a goofy side of me, but that's a side that only close family and friends generally see). In the end, although I had to read it over two or three times, your post made a lot of sense, and I liked it :D
James
I think your post makes a lot of sense, even as it is clear you are writing to yourself in order to makes sense. I think what you are saying about identity has a lot to do with rhetoric also. You have a different audience on FB than you do at home or in a class. Is that 'self' untrue because it is managed (Hochschild) or socially situated (Goffman)? How does thinking of these situations as spaces for persuasion influence how you see them?
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