real identities
compatible?
Image
1, (Saif, 2014)
Are our online identities
that individuals show on the internet, bound by restraints of being either real
or ‘fake’? or are they much more complicated than that? From my experience on
Pinterest I would argue that our online Identities are much more complex than
being simply real or ‘fake’ and are arguably incompatible with our real identities.
Founder of Facebook Mark
Zuckerberg and colleges, appear to believe that social networks such as Facebook
are, and should only be, used as an extension of your real personality (McNeil,
2012). That your profile should match your identity as closely as possible. For
this to be true however, at the very least it would mean that you, as the
individual behind the computer screen, are the only force influencing your
online identity. I do not believe that this is a freedom that we are exposed to
on our online networks.
Sherry Turkle
explains this in her 2012 Ted Talk, where she compares her first beliefs and
feelings towards the internet in 1997 to her 2012 beliefs and feelings of it. Her
feelings of our virtual Identity in 1997 were optimistic. She believed that “what
we learned about ourselves in the virtual world, would add to our identity in
the real world” (Turkle, 2012). However, her most recent feeling towards the
internet are reflected in her statement, “we are letting it take us to places
that we do not want to go” (Turkle, 2012). Online networks are taking us places
we don’t want to go because our virtual self-narrative is influenced by a variety
of factors where gate keepers, corporations and algorithms are, overtly or
subliminally, influencers of our virtual Identity (Kuttainen, 2017). Take
Pinterest for example.
The only posts that will
come up on my home page are pictures/ pins, that are similar to those that I
have saved in the past. I will not get pictures/pins of clothes that I do not
normally wear or places I have never been interested in in the past. Pinterest
appears to cater for my dominant interests. This is similar to how Eli Pariser (2011)
describes Facebook, where Facebook, and other social networks like google, are
networks that edit based on your interests (Ted
Talks). The outside influencers here are the algorithms on Pinterest that
only allow me to see pins that I have overtly expressed interest in. They do
not allow for variation of choice. I am not exposed to anything that I have not
liked in the past, and because of this I am a part of what Parisar (2011)
describes as a ‘filter bubble’. How am I meant to develop and grow my Identity,
be it virtual or real, if I am not exposed to anything new or different?
For me, I can neither add
anything to my real identity from being a part of Pinterest, or portray an ‘authentic’
version of myself through this social network. I believe that all virtual
profiles in all social networks are in some way ‘fake’, due to the creation of ‘filter
bubbles’ and outside influencers.
References
Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our space: Networks,
narratives and the making of place, lecture 6: Robots [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
McNeil, L. (2012). There is no ‘I’ in Network:
Social Networking Sites and Posthuman auto-biography. Biography. University
of Hawai’i Press. Vol.35, no.1, pp 65-82
Pariser, E. (2011). ‘Beware Online “Filter Bubble”.
Ted Talks. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles
Saif. (2014). ‘Keep Calm My Profile Picture is Under
Construction’. (image). Retrieved from https://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-my-profile-picture-is-under-construction/
Turkle, S. (2012). ‘Connected but Alone’. Ted Talks.
Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together
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