Reflection of My Online Identity

Reflection of my online identity

The way in which we communicate has changed significantly over the last few decades. If I am honest with myself, I use my phone as a security blanket. I feel anxious and twitchy if I don’t have it on me 24/7. However, considering how much I access the internet and various social media apps on my phone, I rarely post content on these platforms. When I do, it is usually a ‘share’ of something I have found interesting, funny or important; mostly ‘cute’ animal videos and sometimes social justice or political issues. I don’t really ‘create my own content’ (unless you count blurry pictures of a drunken night out or a generic, heavily-filtered photo of a beach that is the staple of most Instagram accounts).

I have always been envious of my online connections who have a prominent social media presence. A combination of self-consciousness and perfectionism (if I can’t do anything well, I just won’t try) has stopped me from publishing things on the internet that I have made. 

Untitled by John Hain
[Public Domain] 
In this post, I want to explore the ways in which I use social media and why. And secondly, to examine the ways I could use these tools more productively and creatively. I would like to change my online behaviour so that I am more visible and share creative and interesting content. Since I use social media so much, and do not plan on stopping, I should use the time as an opportunity to develop my personal and professional networks, and to practice creativity, openness and playfulness.

Web 2.0 and my (non)web-based activity

Web 2.0 describes the current cultural climate of the internet which is characterised by social networking, audio visual representation and tools which aid creative expression. Before the emergence of websites which encourage interactivity, the internet was purely text based and delivered in a subject-matter-to-audience basis (web 1.0). (Cover 2013)  

Gauntlett (2011) explains that before web 2.0, media consumption was very much about being a passive audience member. He proposes that before the introduction of the television, people had spent their leisure time in more active ways (perhaps learning how to fish, bake, etc). Gauntlett (2011) sees the current social media based internet culture as a possible renaissance of skills-based, active and creative leisure time. Since probably about my teens, my leisure time has been all about activities where I watch, read or listen and seldom interact or do.

Reflecting on my online life and identity, I can see the value of becoming more active online. By participating in online cultures, I can increase my creativity, sociability and feelings of connectedness. In saying this, it’s hard to know where or how to start. So I’ve looked at some scholarly theories about identity, interactivity, and the cultural value of social media in order to get a better understanding of how I can use these platforms more widely. 

Identity construction on social media

Social media helps to satisfy ‘an older, ongoing cultural demand [in which we] process ourselves and our actions into coherence, intelligibility and recognisability and thus disavows the instability of identity’ (Cover 2013, p.57). Judith Butler’s theory of performative identity can be applied when reflecting on social media use. Butler describes the formation of the ‘self’ or an identity as integral to social cohesion and, because we are social animals, essential for the individual. Thus, Social networks are popular because they offer an effective means to achieve this human desire.

Collage of Digital (Social Networks) by Tanja Cappell
(CC BY-SA 2.0)


WHY I USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Identity construction and the Ludic self   

Click here for more info on theories discussed below

The theory of play was developed by Johan Huizinga who stipulated that all developments in civilization and culture stemmed from the act of playing (Frissen et al. 2015). For Huizinga:

‘…playing is non-serious in the sense that it is not characterised by our daily concern for food, shelter, and everything else fragile beings like us need in order to survive. Play takes place outside and above the necessities and seriousness of everyday life. (Frissen 2015, p.13)

Social media websites can be characterised by their ability to elicit play and playfulness within its community. Even though serious issues are often talked about, they are often approached with elements of humour and mischievousness.

Stemming from play theory, Ludic self-construction was developed from the writings of philosopher Jos de Mul and is a theory of identity construction centred around play and playfulness. This theory was developed from the theory of narrative-self construction coined by Paul Ricoeur. (Deumert 2014)
Narrative self-construction is a theory based on the idea that we cannot fully understand our ‘selves’ through just introspection alone but through doing. By taking part in various activities we ‘discover ourselves’; we find out what we like and don’t like, what kind of music and past-times we enjoy, the kind of people we would like a friendship or romance with, etc. By doing we figure out what gives us pleasure, what makes us tick. From this, we create stories about ourselves. We make a narrative out of our lives to make sense of our place in the world. (Deumert 2014) Ludic self-construction is critical of Ricoeur’s theory as it proposes that identity doesn’t always have to make sense and follow a linear narrative. (Deumert 2014) 

Playfulness helps to form connections
Untitled by Pixabay user 947051
[Public Domain]

Taking these theories into account, I have learnt some valuable lessons in the way that I can approach how I operate within my and how I might construct my online identity. Approaching my social media use with a sense of playfulness and openness can help me to create and build connections as well as developing my creativity. 



 The Future of my Online Life

References
Cover, R 2013, ‘Becoming and belonging: performativity, subjectivity, and the cultural purposes of social networking’, in A Poletti & J Rak (eds), Identity technologies: constructing the self online, University of Wisconsin Press, pp.55-69, retrieved 1 December 2017, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  
Deumert, A 2014, ‘The performance of a ludic self on social network(ing) sites’ in P Seargeant & C Tagg (eds), The language of social media: identity and community on the internet, Palgrove Macmillan UK, pp.23-45, retrieved 6 December 2017, ProQuest Ebook Central.

Frissen, V, Lammes, S, Lange, MD, Mul, JD & Raessens, J 2015, ‘Homo Ludens 2.0: play, media and identity’ in Frissen, V, Lammes, S,  Mul, JD & Raessens (eds), Playful Identities: the ludification of Digital Media cultures, Amstedam University Press, pp.9-50, retrieved 10 December 2017, ProQuest Ebook Central.

Gauntlett, D 2011, Making is connecting, Polity Press, retrieved 5 December 2017, ProQuest Ebook Central.

Holda, M 2016, ‘Intersections between Paul Riccoeur’s conception of narrative identity and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the polyphony of speech’, International Journal of Philosophy, vol.21, no.2, pp.225-247, doi: 10.5840/forphil201621215.

Lejeune, P 2013, ‘Autobiography and new communication tools’ in A Poletti & J Rak (eds), Identity technologies: constructing the self online, University of Wisconsin Press, pp.55-69, retrieved 1 December 2017, ProQuest Ebook Central.  

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