Social Media Identity

Status Updates author Alice Marwick is an experienced academic observer of American online culture who subjectively weighs in on the new era of media and where this social media phenomenon is in this country let alone the world. This book takes you on a personal journey sheading light on old and new ideas such as, dot com era, Web 2.0, self- branding, Neoliberal capitalism, the up rise of micro celebrities, and online personas. Although precisely written and full of extensive qualitative research, this book is mostly over opinionated and anecdotal. A good amount of what Marwick is preaching isn’t necessarily true and full of negative rhetoric towards men such as Gary Vaynerchuk, a self-branding guru who she actually dedicates a part of her book too along with others. Most of the book is full of her first hand experiences in northern California tech start up hotbed areas where most of her work was done by good journalism.

In his essay, “Get Over It,” Jeff Jarvis argues that “ . . . our supposed privacy crisis, . . . could result in our missing many of the opportunities the net affords to connect with each other and with information” (430). On the other hand, Andrew Keen, in “Sharing is a Trap,” states that “. . . this increasingly ubiquitous social network . . . is invading the 'sacred precincts' of private and domestic life” (426). With all the posting, tweeting, and blogging privet lives have become open to the public. SMS, emails and even calls are being traced, recorded and reviewed every day, you are not safe on the internet. Keen’s argument regarding social media is valid in regard to the transformative nature of the Internet, privacy and “publicness.”

“For people who use blogs and social-networking sites like diaries, putting their personal information out there for the world to see this presents a serious risk. There are even many people out in the world who believe that social media has escalated to which will last forever: ‘I think young people are seduced by the citizen-media notion of the Internet: that everyone can have their minutes of fame,’ says Barry Schuler, the former CEO of AOL who is now the co-producer of a new movie, Look, about public video surveillance. "But they're also putting themselves out there—forever.’” (Bennett 3).

Our society has evolved very much over time. The technology, has impacted it greatly. With technology in our lives, we find ourselves ‘glued’ to our electronics. Now, the question is, what does social media provide us? In Wu’s article, he states, “The devices we use change the way we live much faster than any contest among genes.” Meaning, we rely on these devices to make us happy, and resort to them when we are bored. Similarly, in Castells article, he says, “Media often report that intense use of the Internet increases the risk of isolation, alienation, and withdrawal from society.” However, the article also says that social media has actually “increased sociability, civic engagement, and the intensity of family and friendship relationships, in all cultures.” Answering the question, we actually get something out of using social media. We are allowed to communicate with

Every day individuals are faced with countless decisions that have the opportunity to change their lives forever. These decisions can be larger such as career options or they can be seemingly insignificant ones such as choosing what kind of shoes to wear for the day. Although such a wide variety of judgements are made each day, there is a highly influential platform that is often overlooked. The daily decisions that are made online are perhaps the most significant towards how one’s identity is shaped. As technology has changed over time, the everyday use and purpose of it has also seemed to evolve. While the internet is often used solely in search of information, it has quickly become a platform for individuals to “recreate” themselves through

[CE] There is beauty with everything that we do and why not technology as a reflection of our self representation. We take a picture of ourselves and post it on social media apps like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to show an experience or current state we are in. We write blogs to express our thoughts and views online so others will see what we are thinking. This paper simply explains why and how individuals take advantage of their sources in this case, technology and shape themselves and create a name for themselves.

Private privacy is personal information that people keep secret from public; it also means to refrain people from knowing about them or their situations. Many companies and businesses wants to protect people from hackers and thieves from using their information, such as Social Security and credit card barcodes; consequently, hackers use people’s information to buy illegal products or to expose explicit information from their social media pages to the public. Other suggested that personal privacy does not exist when the government is watching people, stopping terrorists and criminals from plotting attacks against their communities. David Plotz, a writer and deputy editor of Slate, wrote an essay entitled “Privacy is Overrated” to talk about

Social media is often praised for its ability to connect people worldwide, but in reality, it is forcing us further apart; we are no longer individuals but are instead creating for ourselves a fake social identity. Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” focuses on how reading on the Internet has made it almost impossible for us to do “deep reading.” In “Just Between You, Me, and My 622 BFF’S,” Peggy Orenstein looks at how social media has stolen younger girl’s identities, and formed their sexual identity. Chuck Klosterman in his article “Electric Funeral” sees the Internet as a breeding ground for “villains” who feed off our primitive impulses to draw attention and fame to ourselves. These three authors have powerful

Currently, people are living in a virtual world that is dominated by social media; the influence of emergences of social media platform, such as Facebook, YouTube, has far beyond the imagination of people（Pennsylvania, 2011）.There are an increasing number of people who are willing to use social media to manage their identity, which offers a large amount of opportunities for those audiences who want to standing out from the crowd.(Matthieu; Serge et al, 2013) But because of information overload, to some extend, social media are probably making it harder for them to differentiate from the counterpart .In view of the fact, how to manager personal identity has been view as a vital

Social media has guided us to believe that we need to be connected to others. “…the social media revolution has not made us feel more connected, less lonely, or replete with friends” (Barna Group). Social media has input certain beliefs into the minds of people while also taking away that time that could be spent with friends and family. Social media has allowed people to put on fronts and believe that these are the only means of communication.

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.

People begin to connect more and more every day with the power of social media. Whether someone is thousands of miles away or a few blocks from your house there is the possibility of finding them on social media. The question is, with all the connecting possible through social media does it make us more distant to one another? With today’s youth, social media begins to take over one’s life and become their main source of interacting. Social media is possibly one of the best and worst creations in the modern world but the cons definitely triumph over the pros.

Most of us use social media to communicate with our family, friends and our loved once. Since almost all of my friends live 8000 mile away, I use Facebook, Instagram, and viber to keep in touch with them. Bur recently I started noticing it has become more than a means of communication. I start posting a picture and obsesses about how many likes I get, checking other peoples Facebook just to see if they have more friends than me, believing every post without questioning if it’s a fact and funny enough I start sending friend request for people I don’t even know. Christine Rosen, a senior editor of the New Atlantis and resident fellow at the Ethics and Public policy Center in Wessington, D.C. on “In the Beginning Was the World”, she wrote how technology is affecting the society’s critical reading ability. Peggy Orenstein, an author and a contributing writer for the New York Times, on “I Tweet, Therefore I Am” she talks about how social media is distracting as from fully live in the moment. Even though the development of technology have increased the quality of life, it also brought undeniable challenges to our society. The constant use of social media and internet has increase society attention-seeking, Distracted, and decries critical reading. The use of social media has increased dramatically throughout the years.

More recently than in years past, digital technology and social media have grown to become a part of our everyday lives. The recent rise in those who own smartphones allows this everyday use of digital technology and social networking to be easier than ever before. At any time and any place, we have the ability to “socialize” with nearly anyone—even celebrities who have no idea most of us even exist. The continuous consumption of digital media has altered once personal face-to-face communication to just that, digital. More and more people seem to be living in what Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon call “The Cloud”. “The Cloud” is a seemingly alternate universe of which communication is altered from personal to digital. This universe has led to debates over whether or not these online communities are real or whether social media is actually social. Various digital media sources also encourage users to create individual identities, of which may or may not actually be real. It seems as though our reliance on digital technology and social media have allowed the determination of certain aspects of our lives. Although social media allows us to connect with nearly anyone at any time, Americans have taken advantage of its use, and their attention has been drawn away from real life interactions to digital ones. The ramifications of such influences reflect the hidden insecurities of Americans and, ironically, emphasize our inclination to boast about ourselves by allowing others to see the

With over one billion Facebook users and 255 million on Twitter, there is no denying the expansion of social media uses. There is no denying that college students are not directly connected socially at all hours of the day. The rise of smart phone usage leads to a demand for a growing social media market. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin shows there is a positive relation between avid Facebook users and social satisfaction and acceptance (Valeenzuele et al. 894). Thus showing, those who engage more on social media, such as Facebook, find their connection to the world more meaningful because they can easily engage with others on