Matthew Johnson
Professor Wesch
Facebook Assignment
09-20-08
It is inherent in human nature to express oneself in order to forge a personal identity. The medium has only recently taken a complete shift into new territories, the online identity. An online identity is anything and everything we want it to be. Facebook has become a phenomenon, reaching millions of people all over the world. It has also become our generation’s form of personal expression. Through it we can create a profile of ourselves that we wish to share with others. We are allowed to see our own profiles and therefore our own identities from the third person perspective. This different perspective is imperative to how Facebook has changed our identities.
By viewing our own profile we see what others see and begin to compare our self-image to that which we see. Then we can change the profile to match our self-image more clearly. The profile changes, but we do not. Or do we? Does self-realization occur when we view our life through another’s perspective? And does that realization cause us to change attributes of our real identity? Or does it simply cause us to make false statements on our profile in order to allow ourselves to remain as we are? Is the profile real? Does the profile become us? Or do we become the profile?
The answer is both. We change aspects of our profile and identity in order to create a new self. But the window for viewing is limited. Our personal information is limited to: sex, relationship status, sexual preference, political and religious views, activities, interests, favorite music, favorite TV shows, favorite movies, favorite books, favorite quotations, education, and work. These Facebook parameters are now dictating what we value as important characteristics of ourselves and others. This affects how we define personality. Personality is beginning to be defined by the set of information that exists on our profile, which we use to judge a person based on a wide variety of aspects.
First impressions are now different when taken from Facebook. Facebook is now an artifact that represents our personalities, replacing such artifacts as diaries and journals, which were used to record people’s personality before the internet and online profiles. Diaries and journals are a personal and unedited view into a private world. Facebook profiles are public and editable. Therefore, they often offer a skewed view of who we are. Due to Facebook’s nature the content is easily changed and we can change to match it. This will affect what others in the future think of us, and that will undoubtedly change their lives as well. This is similar to how we look back on the diaries and journals of the past to determine what people were like and therefore what culture was like.
Facebook has begun to change how we interact with the world around us and how we forge ourselves, and it will continue to affect us forever.