FACEBOOK YOU VS. REAL YOU
In
the readings this week about Language and the making of place it is said
that the written text has its own unique power of transforming reality, and the
fact that books usually expresses deep feelings and thoughts. (Tuan,Y. 1991)
This can be linked to the way Facebook work in today’s society. By being
a member of Facebook you have the power to write whatever you want and because
of this, you are in one way transforming what you are writing to reality.
People usually believe what other members’ share about their feelings, thoughts
or just what they have been doing along the day.
Image from simplepimple.com
I
would say that the version of myself that I have created on Facebook is my own
true identity. I haven’t put out any false information or pretending that I am
somebody else. So my virtual profile is pretty much a reflection of the real
me. But because we have the instrumental power (Allen J. 2003) to create any kind of impression
of ourselves, I have to admit that most of the information on Facebook is a
selected carefully. I think that most of the people I socialize with do the
same thing about information or pictures that are being uploaded. That you only
want your other members to see the best version of you, the carefully selected
version. Because this is possible to create, it is hard to say what is the
truth and what is not. I would like to believe that most of the people that I
socialize with, are fairly similar in real life as they are appearing on
Facebook.
REFERENCE
Allen, J. (2003). Introduction: Lost geographies, in Lost geographies of power (1-12). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Tuan, Y. (1991) Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach. In Annals of the association of American Geographers, 81(4), 648-696.
IMAGE CREDIT
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ReplyDeleteKimia,
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting point you have raised in your post. Several times I have found information certain people have posted online to be incorrect and misleading – a result of them attempting to portray themselves in a way they specifically want to be seen by others, regardless of whether or not it is a true representation of their real selves. Even such a simple thing as the name you decide to use on a virtual network can have a significant impact on your overall portrayal, because as Tuan (1991) states, not only is naming power, but it also communicates a certain character to things. As you stated, I also like to think that my virtual self is an accurate portrayal of my real self, but even I must admit that I am not completely one-hundred percent honest when it comes to sharing information about myself online, which does beg the question is anyone?
Tuan, Y. (1991). Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach.In Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81(4), 684-696.
Hi Kimia,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog I keep coming back to a point that you made, that the user is writing a version of their 'reality' into existence. This reminds me of this week’s reading "In modern literate societies, the written text has largely supplanted storytelling." (Tuan 1991 p. 690) where our modern society has become geared towards believing almost everything that we read on Facebook no matter how edited or tailored it is and it is through this 'innovation' of the social network we as a society, have lost a connection with our past in the form of storytelling.
Reference list
Tuan Y. (1991). Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative- Descriptive Approach. Page 690
In Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Pages 684 - 696
Association of American Geographers.