Do you update your online status every day?
Do you post photos of yourself online?
Do you use post false information online?
Have you created a ‘different’ you!?
Bell (2006), explores the idea that mobile phones in China have become more than just a communication tool but more of a multi-media platform where individuals can brand themselves. ‘In addition to their more obvious cultural functions as communication and information tools, cell phones also say something about who their owners are (Bell, 2006). But the question we need to ask ourselves is, is this representation true?
This idea can be related to many new media technologies. Facebook, for some, is an online, public dairy where users are given the opportunity to firstly create their own content and secondly use that content to brand themselves.
I personally am not a fond believer in posting my every move online through status updates or uploading photos, but for some, it provides a sense of inclusion and belonging and for some, it is all comes down to impressing the outer world. In creating and posting this information online, on ‘your’ page, can be seen as ‘branding yourself’, but is this online brand or online personality, a true representation of yourself?
(Dare Obasanjo, 2011)
Facebook is a prime example of where users can create a ‘fake’ online personality. Zuckerberg (2011, pg 98) states, “having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity”. This statement reiterates my concern, that online, social networking sites are allowing people to create online identities, which may differ from their offline identity.
Therefore, is the ability to create a fake person and post fake information online, healthy, or is it allowing people the opportunity to pretend, lie and imitate something they wish to be?
References:
Bell, G. (2006). The Age of the Thumb: a Cultural Reading of Mobile Technologies from Asia. Knowledge, Technology, & Policy, Summer 2006, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 41-57.
Mark Zuckerberg, cited in Kirkpatrick, 2010, p.198. The Facebook Effect: the Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World
This is very true Lucy, with the added pressure that facebook now has over it's users sometimes makes 'create' themselves into a product or brand so that they are looked upon more favorably- quite sad really, thanks to new media platforms, gone are the days of 'what you see is what you get'.
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