Social Media And How It Affects Our Everyday Life

When we think about Social Media, we automatically think the funny memes, posting selfies on Instagram, letting everybody know how were feeling on Facebook, or those Twitter thread rants about our overbearing Professors that give us so much work. But, that’s not exactly what Social Media is all about. Social Media is something that revolves around our everyday lives that enables us human beings to create and share content with other human beings as well as meet some interesting people along the way. Now, here’s something to think about, does the content you post/create showcase the person you really are or the person you want others to think you are? This is something to think about because every day we post things that we think goes along with this persona we have on social media that we want people to see, but why don’t we post content that shows who we really are instead of creating this different role to play? When thinking about this in a more technical way, this is something called the “Self”, the “Me”, and the “I” which is a theory developed by George Herbert Mead that explains a lot of why we have such difficulty being our real, true self and how not only social media plays a big role in shaping who we are, but other people’s opinions and attitudes toward us make a big impact as well. When we talk about the “Self”, Mead believes that it is an entity that helps individuals grow and develop to be socially, productive citizens. This is what helps us to be the normal, social people we strive to be, and it is developed through social activities and social relationships, but we cannot pursue this without social interaction. Also, as our selves develop more and more, we begin to be able to examine our own thoughts and behaviors as if we were examining other’s actions and to reach this, we must have the ability to unconsciously put ourselves in other people’s shoes and view our own actions from that standpoint which could be a person in particular or a whole community. Now, when talking about the “Me” on the other hand, it is pretty much this picture perfect life and “cool” character we portray on Social Media that is influenced by the viewers of our content who are basically asking for more and more because the content we give is now what they are accustomed to seeing and they believe we are this person were not which helps us reach the goal of achieving more likes and comments. Besides that, this is the part of the “Self” that is concerned with how others will view it. We’re not exactly being our true self that we feel isn’t accepted or we’re seen as “different” because we’re not like everybody else that’s why we portray our lives of being “cool” and “hip” on social media where we feel more accepted than in real life. This is where the “I” comes into play. The “I” is the person behind the phone which is us, the real you who we don’t show to anyone. Mead explains the “I” is part of the “Self” that is spontaneous, impulsive, and creative which is all your possible cool characteristics that are un-socialized or as said before, not shown to the world. In connection with the “Me” and the “I”, the concept of “looking glass self” shows that we, as socialized products of society, are always thinking of how others think about us and are willing to do anything to change ourselves to fit in with societal standards. This has a lot do with people who are living their life as a lie just to fit in or to gain followers, likes, comments. In connection with this concept, the blog post posted on Mcsweeneys.com “My life might look great on Instagram, but deep down I’m actually a Ciranolid Isotope” by Simone Taylor is a perfect example of how we try to fit into the societal standards by posting fake content that does not relate to our actual feelings or our own life, but is the opposite of it. After questioning the person in particular for not leaving love on her content, she comes to admit that in reality, her life is not all that great but that she is actually a Ciranolid Isotope. She goes on to speak about a few of her posts and how they all have no meaning behind it and are not as lovely as they seem to be. She then admits that, “every one is a charade for your benefit. A total, bald-faced lie.” Taylor was posting these fake pictures to show viewers that she is supposedly living her best life and is carefree, but that the connections with the people in these photos were false and had no true meaning behind them and it was all just to gain hearts that she wanted that would fulfill the role she was playing on Social Media. Taylor wanted to fit in with society by portraying how much she loved life and that everything is perfect, but behind the phone screen, she is miserable and is living in the shadows of others. To tie everything all together, Social Media plays a crucial role in society that basically determines if you fit in or not and that is why people come up with these different identities because they are not accepted for their true self. They want to fit in and be accepted with this fake persona, but after a while, it will start to merge with their true selves and it will be hard to distinguish what is real or fake. In the end, it is only up to us decide if we will live our life through reality or live it falsely over a screen.