When I think of
manipulation, only one recurring “thing” comes into my mind: Social Media. Now I love Facebook, Twitter, and the likes of them and
I use them every day, but something needs to be said about the convenience of
manipulation that is brought about by their existence.
A “chat” on
Facebook and a “chat” in real life are two completely separate definitions of
the word. In a face-to-face conversation, you cannot ‘control’ what is being said; it takes
place in real time; there is a flow. Texting, posting and emailing allow us to
present the self as we want it to be. We can edit; do and redo, all in an effort
to show off what we want to show and hide what we don’t want to show. We can delete and we can add.
We can manipulate ourselves into being someone that we truly are not. When you
pull up my profile on Facebook.com, you see a John McGonigle from Atlanta Georgia who went to The Westminster Schools and was born in May of 1994. But is
that true? You might know that it is because you know me. Someone that finds me
and decides they want to add me as a friend only because my last name resembles,
to some degree, the Professor in Harry Potter might not. But, none-the-less
they assume that everything they read IS true because I have presented it to
them as such. Regardless of veracity, I have spent hours on hours perfecting my
profile, picking the photos in which I look the best and the phrasing and (order
of) words in a message; All of which I do in an attempt to present a desirable
image of who I am. It is done, honestly, to manipulate you and others into
believing what I want you to believe – which in this case just happens to be
the truth. Technology changes who we are, because we, the users of technology,
have figured out that we can reinvent ourselves.
This idea is best summarized by: “I
share therefore I am”
Now assuming all this is true and
that social media indeed shapes who we are, this idea calls into question one
vital paradox. Who then is really holding all the power, you or Social Media?
I love "I share therefore I am." It's genius. It's almost like the very popular blog "betches love this" once said, if you didn't instagram it, did it really happen? I used to always joke about this, how obsessed people were with their social media persona, especially after college groups were a thing because it became "who everyone is going to think I am." I think that the more popular social media becomes, the more we manipulate others (and sort of manipulate ourselves) through it. In my psychology class we discussed an article about how people who look at their facebook profile more often have higher self esteem. So, by choosing to tag ourselves only in pictures we look good in, and only commenting witty things, we are manipulating ourselves into believing that is who we really are when it could be very far from it.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very interesting type of manipulation because it has several sides to it. If we "my story" the party last night, and instagram pictures with kegs and red cups, are we then "college" enough? Are we telling others or just convincing ourselves?