"I share, therefore I am"

I among many other million people in the world have and maintain almost daily a personal Facebook (FB) page online. Personally, I view my FB profile as a reflection of myself and value highly what people think of the information and material they see on it. As well, there is a defined boundary which I avoid at all costs to cross when it comes to disclosing my personal information and information that may implicate me in any way with employers and teachers, etc. For example, I do not post a relationship status, I do not post my address, and I do not post my age.

  

I found Demetri Martin’s satirical take on Myspace friends (which in theory is the same concept as having FB friends) very true, but it is also something I do not wish to experience online. I keep my connections on FB very limited to 200 or less, and if I have not met or do not know someone personally in real life, I do not connect with them. This is because of what I have aforementioned about keeping my personal information online limited. Limiting the audience of your content limits the amount of personal information being circulated against my will. 

Sherry Turkle outlined 3 very interesting and very true points (in my opinion) in her TEDtalk on why people use online social media. They were 1) we’ll have attention everywhere, 2) we’ll always be heard, 3) We’ll never have to be alone. 

At first glance, one could outright deny these statements because, let’s face it, they’re kind of embarrassing to accept. But aren’t they true? I can personally accept these statements as true to me, through the ways I use FB. I upload self-portraits to my profile for attention, and it would almost be ignorant to say one uploads photos of themselves just to save them there. We make photos of ourselves public because we want to know what people think of the way we look or receive praise and flattery that we wouldn’t normally get in out day to day encounters. 

As Turkle said in her TEDtalk, “[Social media] is changing how people think of themselves, it’s shaping a new way of being … I share, therefore I am.” If we don’t share content on our profiles, no one views them therefore we cease to have online presence.
When considering and understanding the uses and gratifications that come from using social media, Turkle makes an interesting statement that online social networking gives people the ability to reveal characteristics or personality traits about one self that would otherwise never be shared. Confidence plays a major role in the initial desire to use social media. 

So now I ask you for some comments! 

Do you feel more confident in yourself when using social media? Is it confidence in your appearance or personality that you seek or have, and why is it different from the way you present yourself in real life?

 

Sources:

Cyberspace and Identity Sherry Turkle Contemporary Sociology Vol. 28, No. 6 (Nov., 1999), pp. 643-648 http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.brocku.ca/stable/pdfplus/2655534.pdf?acceptTC=true

Sherry Turkle. The Flight From Conversation. New York Times Sunday Review. April 21, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html?pagewanted=all

Places we don’t want to go: Sherry Turkle at TED2012 http://blog.ted.com/2012/03/01/places-we-dont-want-to-go-sherry-turkle-at-ted2012/

Demetri Martin on The Daily Show:
http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/correspondents/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart---demetri-martin/clip141030#clip141030