Mead Theory of "Me" and "I" in Social Media

 Hey everyone, my names Brock Weaver.

For the first blog post I am going to be talking about "Mead" and what his theory was and relating it to a social media trend that I find similar to what Mead theory is about. The theory of "Mead" was discovered by a man named George Herbert Mead who talked about a theory of how we look at our identity in society through ourselves and through others. He gives two words to describe this philosophy as he says the "me"is how you are looked at and perceived by others in society and the way they look and think you are. While the "I" is how you see your own self and the way you choose to look and see who you are. You find this "me" by the interaction with people in society and people you grow up with and the friends you have, plus the things they tell you and see you as. The "I" is found actually by the "me" and how you gather up the things people tell you that you are, or are not, and you then base that into how you see yourself.

The social media example I have for this philosophy is a tik tok trend going on called the "Buss It" challenge. It is a predominately women based challenge as these girls start off by being on the camera looking "average" or "basic" with no type of makeup, hair style or anything done to their image to perceive unattractive. They stand in front of the camera like this to show their look off for several seconds and as the music begins to change the song says "Buss It" and camera changes to them squatting on the ground now in what would be probably their nicest clothes usually a very nice dress or some good looking clothes, with all their makeup done trying to look their most attractive self.  I thought this trend was perfect of what Mead is trying to convey in which these girls are showing the "me" which is them all dressed up and looking good, and then the "I" which is what they see their own self as which is not the true beauty that they have.

In society today we have this perception that if a girl is not wearing a beautiful dress or a face full of makeup and hair done, that they are "Unattractive" this is a perfect example of what Mead is talking about with his "me". This is what society and other people see and they way you are perceived and judged by other people which is how good you look, and that if this is not how you look all the time then you are perceived as "not beautiful" which is completely unfair. Then the second part to this trend is the "I" which is the part of the tik tok where the girls have no makeup and long baggy clothes that is supposed to be perceived as not good looking. I feel like this is how some women see themselves when they are not all dressed up and looking their absolute best which is not true. You should see yourself as beautiful no-matter what you are wearing or not wearing and the clothes you have on or the makeup you wear does not determine how beautiful someone is. This is why this notion of "I" is so much based on what we hear from other people and what society says because of the way it effects the way we think about ourselves. We care so much about what others think and see us as when in reality that "I" should be the most important thing because the way you see yourself is the most important part, not how other people and society see you. Which again is the biggest problem we have in our society/generation today, is that people care to much about the "me" in ourselves and not the "I" which is what matters the most.

I thought this social media trend was a great example for what Mead talks about in his philosophy of "me" and "I". There are these two ways we see ourselves and they really effect the way we feel and see our own self and it is important to understand which one is more important and means more to us. although this trend s fun and entertaining, i'm not taking that away or trying to bash this trend in any way. I just saw that it connected in the way that the dressed up self is the "me" in society and how society and others wants to see you and view you as. While the "I" is the undressed "bummy" look that women see themselves as when they are not in that state. Which is why it is so important to understand the "I" and why the way you see yourself is more important then the way others see you as, the "me". Women are beautiful just the way they are without any of the stereotypical definitions of beauty that society puts out there. Which is why this theory is critical to understand not only for how we view other people, but for how we view ourselves.