YOU ARE NOT YOUR FACEBOOK 

PROFILE
September 2, 2015

  

       I cannot tell you who you are – but I can tell you something you’re not: you’re definitely not a combination of codes
arranged to create an interface of whites and blues. You are more than a virtual profile that can be hacked, maligned, or
deleted accidentally by any person, anytime. Your life has so much more than what a simple URL destination can offer.

           As people around you can see, you are a living human being walking, talking, breathing; composed of bones, soul,
and sinews; not the number beside the thumb icon on your profile pic nor the one indicating how many other “combination
of codes” you are connected with in that virtual circle. Realizing those numbers somehow, sometimes, makes you feel the
exact opposite – you’ve got lesser likes, lesser friends, lesser tagged photos every week – but that’s okay; all those
cannot buy you pizza or a Netflix subscription anyway.
 

            That long caption your friend made along a picture he/she posted on your wall on your birthday might actually give
people a clear idea of what you are like – but anyone who really, personally knows you would not have to scroll back to
those dedications just to see that. What you truly are is written in your thoughts, words,  and conduct – and the worth of all
that cannot be commensurately measured by a bunch of virtual content that simply get buried in just a matter of days, or
even hours.

            Even if Facebook had successfully documented all your activities from 2008, it would still fail to provide an all-
sufficient idea of your worth and individuality. You may not even be that close to that person who likes every single post of
yours every time, as well as that person whose every single post you can not help yourself from liking. The “music that
you like” section might be missing artists behind your biggest guilty pleasures – all because you want to protect your
image of having a good musical taste. You even hide those unflattering tagged photos from your timeline, even though
you and your colleagues have always known what your eating, blinking, talking, or resting face has always looked like.

            In a virtual world where people mostly only put up the best parts of their lives on display, you can’t expect any fair
picture of life – including yours.

           You may not really be as inferior as you think you are, especially when you look at your globetrotter friends’ travels,
your highschool classmates’ current job positions, your acquaintance’s 1,000+-like profile picture. Many people would
probably feel inferior as well when they learn what loving friends and family you have. They might actually envy the way
you really enjoy your work beyond what the #ilovemyjob hashtag can ever express. Many people might feel terribly
inadequate when they learn how hard you’ve been working just to see you and your loved ones’ dreams come to pass,
how many sleepless nights you’ve endured just to earn the degree that’s not even posted on your profile’s About section,
how few but how real the friends that you have – you can actually call them when you’ve got no money to pay for the cab,
or need an important document that you left at home, or just need someone to talk to in the middle of the night.

            Enjoying the things of life takes more than just publicizing them for their best parts because you know that
beautiful things don’t ask for attention. After all, the realer, more exciting parts of your existence, are not made even more
or even less real by anyone’s virtual approval.

            You’re not any lesser of a person when no one gives a thumbs up or comment on your status, photo or YouTube
link. You’re not any less cooler when you don’t “like” pages of cool bands or books or movies that other hardcore hipsters
do. You’re not as awful as you make yourself to be every time you see that your own virtual scrapbook seems to fail in
comparison to your old neighbor’s.

 
            All these scrapbooks will never, ever be commensurate to what you really are and what your worth is. Your screen
is the real world. Your platform is your real life. Your competition is not the one who always gets the most likes, but the
person you were yesterday. And God knows that only Him, and not Mark Zuckerberg, will be the judge.

              Choose to create not just a like-worthy profile, but a like-worthy life today.

Activity 2. Analyzing Fiction

Read the blog titled “You Are Not Your Facebook Profile” on this link: https://anniemarr.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/you-are-
not-your-facebook-profile/. The blog entry by Ann Luna tells you how you are not limited to what social media depict you to be. After
reading the blog, evaluate your own profile, list of friends, and Facebook posts and think of how they do represent and misrepresent
you.
Write a post/ open letter on Facebook to young people like you and tell them how they should not be limited to the norms of
the cyberworld. Your post/ open letter should state how social media has changed the way people communicate with friends and
relatives - near or far, how social media channels change the youths’ perception about themselves and how should you view social
media to your private life and self-perception.