Social Media
New Media has changed how we communicate, collaborate, and express ourselves, especially through digital platforms like social media. So how does this impact identity? Social media has made it easier than ever before to share our lives and reach people across the globe. We pick what we share with people. With every post, every interaction, our online personas are being built. However, how much of what we share actually reflects who we are in the real world?
These new media platforms let people share almost anything. “Digital media’s peculiar nature challenges traditional categories.” (Packer and Jordan 2001) The way we communicate and have had to adapt within digital spaces, and their ability to share and post with such ease, alters not only how we post but also how we react to others. Seeing heavily edited photos, only the highlights of people’s lives, can lower others’ self-esteem when comparing their lives to the glamour and romanticized versions they see online. On the flip side, how does sharing those highlights affect their identity and the expectations they likely place on themselves to appear perfect?
Identity & Privacy
The identity we choose to display in digital spaces also impacts our privacy. Do you use your real name and birthday online? Who has access to this information? Are you purposely trying to present yourself in a different light, a different persona?
For example, new media and online personas let me decide how I appear online and how much I share. On the website I’m creating, although it is a blog about motherhood that includes personal experiences, I am trying to be very careful about how much I share. I will never post my son’s face and will use a different name, based on a part of my middle name, as my identity on the site. The implications of new media and its impact on privacy make me question these things, and as technology and digital spaces advance, so will these questions.
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