Since the day of the Internet, people liked to show themselves online, people could just express their opinions before the social media platform, but when they variety of social media platforms came across in the past decade, it is more obvious to see people identifying themselves different platform. “In social interaction, like in theatrical performance there is a front region where the “actors” are on stage in front of the audiences and choose assets of who are to make visble.” My perspective is that it suppose to be a good thing. Although there are some criticisms think there are instances of commercialization and deception.
People perform differently in various platforms can be recognized a kind of impression management, people do the manage in order to cater to diverse platform positioning. “The expressivenessof theindividual (and therefore hiscapacity to giveimpressions)appearsto involve two radicallydifferent kinds of signactivity:the expressionthat he gives, andthe expressionthat he gives off” (Goffman, 1959:14)Ultimately, young people’s identity practice in contexts of different platforms is something that happens naturally. Take me as an example, I usually use The Red Book, TikTok, WeChat and LinkedIn. I perform differently on different platforms and identity (style) of each platform in just some browsing.
The Red Book prefers to be artistic, warm and most users are girls, so I would like to post something daily, beautiful, like pictures of museums or flowers, etc.
Tiktok’s style is more likely to be interesting and cool，but also superficial and external, most people post their own appearance or funny things
Wechat, doesn’t like the Red Book or TikTok, it’s working on a private domain, and the list needs to be approved to join, to see the moments of each other. In this case, them could really consider the content they gonna post because people around them could see what they are posting, and they might judge it.
Linkedin is special because it is used for the employment market, this image makes people just concentrate on how to show their working skills, honours, titles, etc.
That’s an example of how people show a certain side of themselves on various platforms,the fact is that no matter where we post, we think about who our audience is, how we’re going to express what we want to say, and how we’re going to be more recognized. I believe such selection of identity is actually helping people with high efficiency, and people could choose which app to use when they want to see particular content. Like, if somebody is seeking for a formal job, the best channel to package themself must be Linkedin, because Linkedin has the audience base that just matches. If people try to find a job on Tiktok, I cannot say it is stupid, but it’s not wise indeed. And the Wetchat is not a good choice too, because HR cannot see.
Also, in commercial points, i believe such platform like Linkina can survive and take a place in the digital world is benefiting from their unique position.
- The Mediated Construction of Reality
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/westminster/detail.action?docID=4769058
- Putting the best digital self forward in the age of Social Media
https://medium.com/@haziqsabreen25/putting-the-best-digital-self-forward-in-the-age-of-social-media-d3dbec422b73
#The picture of pop art of Marilyn Monroe is from Bing image search.
This post is great, I really like how firstly you give a brief explanation of what portraying identity online is. I also think that its great that you used examples of yourself and showed how you represent yourself on different social media apps and websites, you also did a good job explaining that different apps have different roles therefore you need to present yourself differently on each one. What app would you say portrays ‘the real you’?
I think it will be WeChat, despite I also selected posting. But since it‘s the one I use most often and have the most friends, I prefer to show my real personality
I liked how you gave personal example of how you use different social media platforms and present yourself in a new light in each of them. Giving brief explanation to the platform seems like a great idea as some people might not be as familiar with them. I also liked how you gave an example of what you might post on The Red Book. What could be improved is linking this post more to one of the topic as I haven’t seen any mentions of theories here. And also maybe giving more personal examples of how you use other platforms and how that. shapes your identity on them might be good!