Who Are We Really Online?

Instagram and Snapchat when they first began were innocent little social media platforms where people posted really anything they wanted. These posts ranged from what they're eating throughout the day to what they do on their nights out. But what changed from 2010 to now? People started caring about what they post and how their image on social media looked.

As Instagram and Snapchat got bigger and better and started making updates to the layout of their apps, things started changing. More and more people began using the apps and people started gaining a bigger following. More and more Gen X and millennials started ditching other social media to start using the new cooler apps. I mean hell, my mom is more active on Snapchat than I am. Since our parents, extended family, co-workers, and bosses started following us on social media, we kind of had to limit what we post and who we share it with; which brings me to my next point. Private/secret accounts. Why did these start? Who came up with the idea? Why do we feel we need to hide stuff on a private account? Well, there could be a few reasons. 1) We are doing slightly illegal things and only want to share with our closest friends or 2) We don't want to broadcast every second of our lives to everybody who follows us so we share with only certain people who we think care, but honestly, probably couldn't care less about what we're doing.

Blogtrepreneur 

By having a "private story" on Snapchat or even a "finsta" on Instagram allows for us to construct a social media image separate from our real accounts. Instagram even stepped up their game and kind of copied Snapchat first with the stories feature, but even further by allowing you to make a "close friends" story on Instagram which is again, limited to only the people you choose to view it. Personally, I use my second accounts to basically just rant about everything I think is going wrong in my life, and yes, I know, nobody cares but for me it's a way to get stuff off my chest without actually having to talk to somebody. They allow me to post things that I would not want my mom or grandma seeing so like, it's perfect lol. The use of these accounts allows us to build our own little "identity work" online.

I know for me personally, I'm kind of like two different people between my accounts. On my main Instagram I look happy as can be with friends and family, but on my second account I am a mix of sad and angry most of the time. Why did I make a second account? Because I saw other people at school making theirs and I thought, "Oh fun, a place to show off all the bad things I'm gonna do". But really, who was I kidding? My second account is a shit show with everything I think goes wrong in my life. My main account is also kind of working around what I see on other people's accounts. If I see a certain pose they did in a picture, I'll try to take pictures like that so I can get a lot of likes like they did. Or even a way they edited their picture.

I've mainly talked about Instagram, but now to elaborate more on Snapchat. Snapchat private stories are a way for kids, mainly, to post the bad stuff they're doing. I mean, it's college. You already know what "bad stuff" I'm referring to. I use mine because I have my mom and other family members as friends on Snapchat and I would rather them not see what I'm out doing on some weekends.

Magicatwork

 On the other hand, with Twitter, I feel like people are the most genuine. People don't have to hide behind separate accounts on Twitter because people don't care what you post on Twitter. I mean, it's different if you're an athlete because coaches look through your social media accounts, but other than that, people can express pretty much whatever on Twitter without feeling the need to hide anything. Instagram and Snapchat are filled with so many people that you see and aspire to be so you construct your image around theirs in hopes of gaining the same attention as them. But with Twitter, you can post anything because almost anyone in the world can see but they really don't care. Plus, Twitter usually isn't a place to post aesthetically pleasing pictures; it's more-so a place to post funny tweets and try to obtain Twitter fame rather than pleasing people with nicely edited pictures or cute poses you found on Pinterest. My point though, people who have multiple accounts on social media construct a different persona almost than who they are on their main accounts. I felt like I needed to make these separate/private accounts and snapchat stories to be "accepted" with everyone else who made one too.