Hannah Roberts

Ogden

STEM III

12-02-2016

Keeping In Touch: How Social Media Makes Us Perceive Ourselves and Why We Cannot
Change It

In todays modern world, social media has made staying connected easy and readily

available for a vast number of people. Social media has become an invaluable tool for staying

informed about the world around you, whether it pertains to collective interaction or current events.

We assume, from the way people choose to present themselves, that they are extroverted, having a

good time, and that people who do not post anything are outcasts. Much of the time, however, this

is purely based on how people want to portray themselves. Our personalities are affected by social

media, and there is no way to remove anonymity from the internet without major drawbacks.

Social media impacts interpersonal interactions in a wide variety of ways. It affects how we

feel, act, how we communicate with others, and how others view us. Our emotions influence our

posts, and our posts influence the way that we are perceived by our followers. The longer we are on

social media, the more it can change the way you act in your everyday life. We have been

conditioned by our peers and the world around us to only portray the most marketable sides of

ourselves on social media. However, this side tends to be extremely pervasive, and can potentially

be at odds with our true personalities. During a study done in 2011 by Utah Valley University

found that the longer students spent scrolling on social media, the worse they felt (Fitzgerald). The

study found that the human tendency to constantly compare ourselves and our lives to others runs

true, as if it were some kind of game to see who can have the best life away from the keyboard.
Wendy Sachs, article writer for the Huffington Post, writes that Facebooks in-your-face-updates

can provoke depression, anxiety, and envy (Sachs). The desperation for social acceptance can

drive people to exhibit opinions and behavior that are intentionally inaccurate representations of

themselves due to lack of repercussions and the thirst to fit in.

As a group, we asked students about how they interacted on social media, and how they

felt it affected them. When doing our research, we also inquired as to who they would feel most

comfortable sharing this information with, whether it be their family, friends, or potential

employers. Afterwards, our research showed that there were mixed results that were mostly

straightforward when it came to reasoning. We determined that more people tended to sway

towards social media sites that focused on anonymity over sites where the portrayal of their true

selves was an integral component. Those who used social media even went so far as to make

separate profiles and personas for their family and future employers, while having other profiles

for interacting with their friends. There were a myriad of reasons that were provided by our

subjects as to why they would show specific sites to certain people in their lives, but many of the

answers took the same course. I like to think that my friends are different than my family is,

replied one anonymous student, my family thinks differently than I do and I dont want them to

be upset with what I have to say, because theyre my family. Many of those who replied in this

manner possibly stray towards an earlier school of thought, that we tend to surround ourselves

with those whom we admire and strive to be like, or people who tend to agree with us on many

subjects. The common response when it came to employers was only slightly different: I dont

want to have a potential job get thrown away just because of some of my opinions. [My family]

would be okay with it, and my friends too, but not everyone lives the way I do and I dont want

them to see that.

 People tend to create and exhibit behaviors that are intentionally false personas of

themselves due to lack of repercussions and the need to be accepted, and therefore it is near

impossible to change this. It would not be viable for social media companies to police honesty in

purer forms than sites such as Facebook. While removing anonymity could potentially increase

honesty and respect for certain boundaries, it would also infringe personal liberties and increase the

danger of harassment. Those who are seeking to create a false image of themselves would still be

able to find a way around this, regardless. [We are] driven by competition, achievement, and

status; hence, the creation and portrayal of our ideal selves, R. Kay Green writes in a social media

analysis, ...our online selves represent our ideals (Green). If a mandatory lack of anonymity were

imposed, people would no longer want to post controversial opinions as it would be easier to make

them targets of harassment in the real world rather than solely on the internet (Magaldi).

Anonymity makes online harassment easier, but lack thereof would increase the risk of real world

harassment.

No matter the levels of policing we attempt to bring to the internet, people will still find a

way to portray themselves as they see fit rather than to come forward truthfully. Our personalities

and interest come into conflict when portraying ourselves correctly, and there will always be an

impact on others through the way we are portrayed. There are benefits and deficits to this matter,

and since it would be up to the individual to decide if the benefits outweigh the deficits, it would

not be viable to universally police one way of thinking.

 Works Cited

Fitzgerald, Britney. "Facebook Psychology: 7 Reasons Why We Act Differently Online." The
Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 6 Oct. 2016.

Green, R. Kay. "The Social Media Effect: Are You Really Who You Portray Online?" The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 8 July 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2016.

Magaldi, Kristin. "The Hidden Truths Of Social Media Posts." Medical Daily. Medical Daily, 27
Feb. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2016.

Sachs, Wendy. "Facebook Envy: How Cruising Can Kill Self Esteem." The Huffington Post. The
Huffington Post, 2 Aug. 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.