Gender Differences Of Self Preservation On Social Networking Sites Essay

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) offers infinite connections and the ability to express oneself to the world. But are these connections and images of self-based upon fact or fiction? Through selective self-presentation, people often present the “ideal self” instead of the “actual self” in the online environment to achieve the feeling of positive self-esteem. In “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am”, Peggy Orenstein writes of how her Twitter posts reflected an idealized version of her life. Two studies support the hypothesis that such editing can have a positive effect on personal self-esteem. “Mirror, Mirror on my Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposure to Facebook on Self-Esteem” by Amy Gonzales presents a study demonstrating

Online identity expands real identity is Turkle's third point. The user may choose to be anyone he or she wants in cyberspace. There are no boundaries on who or what a person may be. A user can express many different aspects of his or her personality without being made fun of because no one would know the truth. A man may be a woman because he wants to engage in his feminine side. The other users may not know it is a man because in cyberspace, others only know what it told to them. If a person chooses, he or she may change gender, age, physical characteristics, and such. A fat man can easily become a beautiful woman in a few key strokes. On the other hand, one may express their nonconformities in a safe way and not have to repress them. A user may be blunt and be proud of it without receiving a black eye for it. Therefore, online identity expands real identity.

Though many characterize their identity with others’ perception of themselves, sincere identity is rather an internal set of beliefs and values that shape a person’s behavior--inside out, not outside in. In the modern world of technology, identity increasingly has become the image of someone created online, put on display for the internet. The era of interconnectivity, technological social interactions, and instant feedback develops an insecure, outward-looking society that forms their social media platforms into “highlight reels” of their life, posting perfectly filtered and angled masterpieces of their most exciting activities. Rather than try to compare their genuine life with these seemingly vastly superior profiles, most create

As a person goes through their life, they encounter many choices and options. The most obvious ones are what they will wear, eat, or do for each day of their life. Everything that they do, even the most simple decisions, can and will impact them and who they are as a person. This will become a part of their identity. However, as the social beings humans are, their identities can be effected by those around them, virtually and physically. Most especially, every person’s identity is affected by the opinions and thoughts of others which can be expressed online, through verbal comments, and body language. This causes each person to question themselves and attempt to view themselves from the eyes of others. And when people question their identities

However, for some teenagers, even adults users, identity management poses a threat for their privacy. In a series of case study by Mary and Aaron (2010) reveals that the majority of SNS users(77%) have altered their privacy setting. At the mean time, it is also the case that only 6% users have bad experiences owing to their privacy exposure, which causes them feel embarrassed. Moreover, there are 12% social networking users feeling regret the content that they have posted and shared. As a result of analyzing case study, there are increasing number of people realized the significance of identity management on social networking sites. In the view of the

Personality allows people to express who they are, but the internet enables people choose and pick what others see. Eli Pariser in “The You Loop” shows how people are selective in what they post and put on their social media pages, because they want to sculpt how others see them. I think that this is extremely true, because I know that I do it all the time. I know that I am very selective about what I post on the internet because it can reflect poorly on me in the, and I care about what other’s think about me. I am also limited to what I can post on my social media pages because of my sorority. Alpha Gamma Delta does not allow sisters to swear, or post pictures of us with alcohol in them. This is partly because the chapter does not want us to further the stereotypes about sororities, and prevent us from looking “impure.” I agree that people make conscious decision to what they post, but peers also influence what is posted.

Media researcher Johanna Blakley made an argument that “social media and the end of gender”. She believes that social media is going to help people dismantle some of the silly and demeaning stereotypes that we see in media and advertising about gender. Now many media companies use very rigid segmentation methods to label to understand their audiences. They believe that the people fall within a certain demographic category are predictable in certain ways. For example, married people will have certain tastes. It is great that the people’s taste is being respected in a way that it hasn’t been before. The people aggregate online is based on the things they love instead of age, gender or income. Also, sharing interests and values are a far more powerful aggregator of human beings than demographic categories. In addition, it turns out that women are driving the social media revolution. She showed some worldwide statistic to illustrate that women outnumber men in their use of social networking technologies in every single age category. It will make the media

Relationships and intimacy are important during adulthood, especially during young adulthood. Happiness at this developmental stage often come from relationships that are formed. Even young adults who are not looking to form long-term or lasting relationships typically still focus on connections with others.

Online social networks have become increasingly populated arenas for much of today’s population, especially with regards to high school and college students. Networks such as Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Vine, Twitter, etc., enable users to create an identity and present it to others by allowing them to share various aspects of their lives. Because individuals select their own content, the resulting representation can be either a true or imaginative reflection of the user. The attitudes, perspectives, behaviours and actions each individual chooses to present, shape their identity within the social media universe. Like most other web-based content, the pursuit of authenticity is assumed to be at the heart of these social media networks, playing an important role in our online interactions and our decisions about what web content we believe to be reliable. But, what about when the network structure allows users to create, post, and interact with anonymous identities? Anonymity eliminates the need decipher authenticity, however, it creates an issue by protecting the negative actions of empowered users.

There are two possible ways that the use of social networking sites can affect a person’s self esteem. According to a study conducted by Amy L. Gonzales and Jeffrey T. Hancock, Facebook helps amplify students’ level of self-esteem. They explained in their study that when people post something on their profile, they have the opportunity to filter the negative information that they would not like to be exposed, and only publicize the information that they consider as positive. By doing this, people can build an ideal image of themselves online, which consequently increase the level of their self-esteem (Gonzales and Hancock, 2011). On the other hand, the study conducted by The University of Gothenburg in Sweden, which

Living in the 21st century requires one to stay current with latest technological advancements. Ever since the development of social networking sites, people are now able to create a carefully-crafted identity for themselves. This has led psychologists to question how well these online personalities match the person in front of the computer. The innovative branch of media psychology looks into how social networking portrays individuals and initiates human interactions within a society.

A social networking website is made popular by a technologically inclined culture which populates the website and has a need to be social online; although not everyone wants to jump on this platform of communication. As the amount of people using a particular social networking website increases, so too will the website's popularity and it’s value in the marketplace resulting in attracting a greater share of the population. Consequently utilizing a domino effect technique. The people who populate the site will become popular at greater levels as they increase their friend base due to the current way Facebook and now Google+ links friends that are a degree or two away. Facebook constantly reminds a user of “People You May Know” even if you don't, but maybe someone in your current circle or association of current friends do. The whole concept of a social networking website is based on popularity so it is no mystery as to why people who use it get the idea to do a “online self-presentation,”(Mehdizadeh 357). A presentation that can be totally honest only including their close friends and family(people who know them best) or one that can be narcissistic in nature where a

Recent research has documented how technology, and social networking sites (SNS; e.g., Facebook, Instagram) in particular, have given rise to a growing obsession with impression management and self-presentation online. Whether it’s searching for the perfect Instagram photo filter or carefully crafting a humblebrag Facebook status about a recent publication, users frequently engage in selective self-presentation strategies to portray an ‘ideal self’ through social media (Chou & Edge, 2012; Manago, Graham, Greenfield, & Salimkhan, 2008). In turn, we seek out social approval and positive feedback in the form of comments and likes.

With the widespread popularity of Facebook, people worldwide are becoming more involved online and this is changing the self-perception of many consumers. With social networking sites we are granted a feeling of validation and importance through how we interact online. Facebook is one platform that does this extremely well and this may be the reason why it has attracted (and kept) so many users. Facebook allows users to belong to certain “networks”, join “groups”, “like” interests, and share their thoughts with the world through status updates. These features all help users to feel validated by their friends and others whom they connect with. This is important because it facilitates what is known as self-categorization for the user. “Self-categorization theory focuses on the set of group norms that define

Women lurk on a man’s page seeking for their materialistic items such as cars, money, and the way a man dresses. Instances such as these causes low self-esteem of individuals who do not portray these specific items or lifestyles on social media. USA Today asked 23 Chicago college students about social media and 20 out of 23 students believed social media caused anxiety or added stress to an individual’s life. One female college student believed that social media adds a lot of pressure to be the perfect person, because that’s how individuals can make themselves look online. A lot of women on social media with low self-esteem issues show their skin and wear revealing outfits to feel “better” about their own body by taking into account how many likes on Instagram or Facebook they receive. The college students have realized it was easy to portray a different version of them on the internet. Individuals believe the number of likes on Facebook/Instagram or retweets on Twitter is used as a tool for verification for acceptance within their group of peers. This can cause a domino effect of problems on an individual’s self-esteem. An individual will post photos that are outside their character just to seek approval through the likes from their peers. This may boost an individual’s self-esteem temporarily, but once he or she logs off social media their self-esteem really hasn’t improved. Valkenbur, P. M., Peter, J., & Shouted, A. P. (2006). Friend