Written by: Aryan Thagunna - 2022003, Grade X
Posted on: 28 February, 2021
The place where kids flex about almost anything. Social Media. Ever wondered how social media portrays one’s life? It gives a one-dimensional perspective on someone's life. It is a perfect representation of having complete control over our life. We can show what we want and present ourselves however we want others to think of us. This sometimes changes a person drastically creating different personalities while on and off social media.
We often hear about the different personalities humans have. One we show to everyone from our closest friend to a complete stranger selling us chocolate, the other one we show to our friends and families, and the final one which we show no one. Well, you can add social media personality to that list. Or rather it perfectly fits itself within the personality we show the outer world. Our social media presence creates a person carefully molded by ourselves. This person loves Starbucks, only shops from Gucci, and is a massive Kylie Jenner fan. We can make them whoever we want, however, we want.
A massive factor that contributes to the fake presentation of us individuals online is that it is too social. You want everyone to see what you eat, wear, drive, celebrate, read, etc. This causes people to grow self-conscious and care more about what others think. Our online persona becomes the driving factor of everything we do in our ‘normal’ daily life. A great example is a trend of following the trend. When everyone decides that rap is cool again and is THE type of music you want to listen to currently, many individuals hop on the trend. It doesn’t matter what their music taste is or if they even like rap. They will listen to rap, show everyone what song they’re listening to on social media, adding an extra trait to their online persona.
Almost everyone on social media is affected by this problem. Stressing over what other people think of you based on what you show them causes split personality on and off social media. A person who loves traditional music (in the context of Nepal) is made fun of so you don't see people in social media vibing to the latest Folk song. Social media has created standards of not only what we must eat, listen to, wear but is also changing the perception of people on physical qualities. Social media holds the power to decide what beautiful, attractive, or appropriate is. This hugely contributes to the different personalities a person has. Our personality online is influenced by trends, celebrities, and peers.
Talking about myself, I use social media but the last time I showed the world what was going on in my life was ages ago (5 years to be precise). This doesn’t mean that social media personalities have not affected me. Evaluating myself based on the difference in my personality on and off social media, I’ve noticed that the way I go about doing things differently. And although not much is different my online persona influences what I am doing off social media. The personality we show no one comes out in social media and lucky for us, we can create however we want it to be.
