Will The Real Me Please Stand Up?

Looking at my about.me page, you might be forgiven for thinking I have multiple personality disorder. I have two Wordpress blogs, a Blogger, as well as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Tumblr accounts (I think that’s all…).

But it’s all me.  Or aspects of me.

Like any human, I have different facets to my personality and my engagement with the various social media platforms (SMPs) have sprung from different needs at different times.  

Source

Just as in real life, our online self is constructed – by our behaviours and by our interactions with others – and constantly negotiated.  We strike a pose, or wear particular clothes to present our best possible self.

I find Smith and Watson’s toolbox of concepts helpful in thinking about online self-presentation, and I wholeheartedly agree that ‘both offline and online, the autobiographical subject can be an ensemble or assemblage of subject positions through which self-understanding and self-positioning are negotiated’ (2014:71).

Take for instance, the concept of the audience. The things I post to Facebook are vastly different to the things I put on Twitter because the audiences are different.

Facebook started for me as a place to connect and reconnect with friends and family, people I actually know. Now I communicate with distant strangers whom I have never met, but with whom I have warm and funny conversations, and share common interests.  My Tumblr is more for my professional profile; it’s where I post my artwork and writing.  In this, I am attempting to transition to a new ‘me’, a creative potential employee.  I’m trying to rebrand myself, what Smith & Watson called ‘the self regarded as a commodity’ (2014:79).

These online versions of me are still authentically me, though.

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I have also written previously here about the specular economy - we're all looking at each other and crafting our online personas, consciously and unconsciously.

Smith, S and Watson, J 2014, "Virtually Me: A Toolbox About Online Self-Presentation," in Poletti, A and Rak, J eds, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, University of Wisconsin Press, 2014, ProQuest ebrary. Retrieved 18 July 2014.