First Impressions
So, this is going to sound ridiculous...
I finally got around to completing my Instagram profile for this class.
I am not exaggerating when I say that it took me HOURS to choose a profile picture.
"This one's too old;" "I look so tired in this one;" "why don't I have any pictures without my kids in it?" "what's wrong with my hair?"
I eventually settled on one, but why was it so difficult to choose?
My profile picture is going to be the first thing people see when finding my account - I want to make a good first impression. Dennen (2009) notes that the early stages of setting up a new blog provide the author with a sense of agency and create an online identity. My identity off the Web is different than the one I want to share with all of you. It is not necessarily a false identity, but it is specifically curated, or an amplified portion of my face-to-face identity, for the community I want to reach and be a part of.
Now that I think of it, it's similar to how I shift different aspects of my identity depending on what environment I am in or who I am with. I'm sure many of us have different "versions" of our identity. At home, I'm Mom. I wear my signature jumper with a hat and often have food, paint, or glue stuck someone on me. But that's not how I want to be seen in this space, and that's okay.
I'm interested to see how my online identity shifts throughout this summer.
What about you? Is your online presence exactly how you are behind the screen?
Reference
Dennen, V. P. (2009). Constructing academic alter-egos: Identity issues in a blog-based community. Identity in the Information Society, 2 (1), 23-38. doi: 10.1007/s12394-009-0020-8
I fully agree with your concept cultivating distinct identities on social media- I wrote about it in my blog post for this week! I feel like the self I want to share with classmates is different than that which I share with friends and is different than that which I present to community acquaintances.
ReplyDeleteHi, Kaley! I have the same issue whenever I have to choose a profile picture. I'm glad I'm not the only one who agonizes over choosing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, Kaley--I can completely relate. I'm one of those people who tends to be fairly comfortable in face-to-face interactions but very skittish about online interactions. I think it's because I actually have too much control over the decisions I make in an online setting (like your example about sharing a profile picture) and, as a result, I overthink things. In in-person situations, I simply don't have enough time/energy to stress out about every little thing. Long story short, my guess is that there are a *lot* of us who can relate to this post!
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