They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Over break, I moved out of my childhood home. I sat in my attic surrounded by boxes, flipping through an old photo album. I was consumed as my mind relocated to the ’90s (the best decade ever), a simpler time when the key to capturing a great photo was to have everyone in the shot shout “CHEEEESE!” in unison. Click. There. Everyone’s pearly whites are showing, and if they aren’t you won’t find out until the film is developed. The color is raw and unfiltered. There is no retouching. Just a moment in history that was happening when someone pulled out their camera and “click” — the moment captured in its essence, we move on and return to these memories at a later time.
Nowadays, 90 percent of the photos I see posted online say one thing:
“I am attempting to define myself and am looking for approval.”
Allow me to elaborate. Nowadays, we each have two personas. There is the persona you adapt when you interact with other people in real life, which I will call an authentic persona. Then there is the persona each of us curates through an online presence in posts on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. I will call this an online persona.
What I find to be difficult is when one constructs an online persona as a clear attempt to remove or cover up parts of one’s authentic persona. Creating an online persona that differs from one’s authentic persona is inevitable and deconstructive. We love the control we have over our online personas, but in order to be happy with ourselves, we must learn to accept and love and value our authentic personas.
Here’s the cold hard truth: social media makes us feel bad about ourselves. Mental health issues are widespread, evidenced in a 2008 Associated Press survey in which 34 percent of college students reported feeling depressed at some point over the previous three months. Earlier this year, I read a moving article about a teenage Instagram model who re-posted her Instagram photos with captions about her personal thoughts of insecurity, lack of esteem and obscured body image that were clouding her head at the time she originally posted them. This is not uncommon. People seek approval to feel good about themselves and Instagram provides one forum for this search.
When I go on Facebook, I see a distinct difference in the photos posted online and old family photo albums. On Facebook, I see a highly curated selection of online personas. Unsurprisingly, the posts that seem to get the most attention are the ones that are most artificial. Glamorous selfies. Incredible outdoor excursions. Pre-games you weren’t invited to that look like they were actually fun. Beachside vacations and concerts with large groups of friends. As you consume this straight from your mobile phone in class, wearing a pair of sweats while your professor hands back the quiz you studied hard for but got a C on last week, how do you expect to feel?
Let’s get one more thing straight: each of us is an outstandingly grotesque (think about toes for a minute), privileged and selfish human being who hasn’t had enough time to figure out who we are. I don’t think many of us, put on the spot, would be able to absolutely declare exactly who we are, what our purpose is in life, for what we stand or by what we are driven.
Finding answers to these questions is what motivates us in real life. Social media conveniently allows us to live through an online persona. Why do we spend so much time composing glamorous selfies to post? They get more likes. Then, in a few clicks you can join a group that indicates where you stand on some contentious issue and you can share some post that gives you the illusion of creating social change. Your profile indicates where you have gone to school, for whom you have worked and with whom you are romantically involved, once again creating an illusion of a complete picture. In fact, there is no way to accurately convey your complete authentic persona on such a platform.
This persona, in itself, is not an accomplishment. We should not feel accomplished by getting hundreds of likes. Sharing a post or a status is not social activism. You’ve done nothing. In fact, we should be aware of the subconscious effect we have on the person who loses self-esteem in comparing their authentic persona to our highly curated online personas. On the other side, even if we don’t post ourselves but if we are one of the 300 likes, we are effectively encouraging someone to maintain their online persona, one characterized by deception and a mask of self-loathing. It’s a lose-lose situation, yet we all rely on it.
Social media forums are platforms of miscommunication. Each of us is capable of amazing things in life. We each have the ability to love, to question, to act and to build. We’re in a position here at Dartmouth to make great benevolent contributions to the world. In order to do this, we must learn to fully embrace our own authentic personas and take online personas with a grain of salt. Want to feel good about yourself? Volunteer. Help others learn. Make music. Study and work hard. Make a goal, set limitations and follow through. Think about what is important to you, do it, and don’t share it with anyone. *Like*
