I believe that a defining feature of self reflection is insecurity. We are acutely aware of our lives and how we compare to the lives of others. We critique ourselves for our differences and perhaps we are never fully satisfied with how we interact with the world. Though I think insecurity is innate to self reflection, I also believe that our self-consious tendencies have amplified in recent years as a result of computer technology, specifically: social media. Not only do social networks provide us with the illusion of constant connection, they also acts a record of our lives. A record which we are able to manipulate and edit. Subsequently, people have begun to see each other the way they want to be viewed. Though effective and useful, social media is completely superficial. The satisfaction that is gained through this extension of ourselves is ultimately unattainable. In the end, our curated lives serve a simple purpose: instant validation. Though we may gain momentary confidence, behind this “selfie” is a person who is still insecure and self conscious.
I am really interested in the idea of the “selfie” and how it effects how we see ourselves. I have a little brother who is in 9th grade. His circle is bound together by mutual friends, likes, and wall posts. The drama in their lives seem to be created and resolved virtually, but most interestingly, everyone has an image. This photo is, in many ways, who we want to be. A photo can be a representation of the person who took it and when it is posted online it informs: this is where I am, who I am with and what is happening. It is an intensely egotistical act, meant to establish a personal narrative of one’s experiences. Now that we are equipped with self-reflecting cameras we have the power to choose this narrative. This allows us to change the image as it applies to our lives. At the same time, this “selfie” seems to be a cry for validation.
How many people liked my photo? If nobody likes it, does that mean I’m not pretty? I liked so-in-so’s photo... that means they should like my photo back! If nobody likes my photo within an hour, I am going to delete it. God, people must not like me. Maybe I’ll inbox my friend, and tell them to like my photo. Or I’ll post a status that says “Like for a like!” Ok, I am just gonna take a better photo.
Humans are gifted with cognition; our ability to sense and assign value. Cognition is completely related to self-reflection. Cognition, which leads to morality and rationality would be impossible if we were unable to reflect upon ourselves and the past.
Why is this ability so often lost in self indulgence and superficial concerns?
Is the narrative told through social media who you really are?
My own experience confirms that social media provide a forum for self-conscious, curated posting in ways suited to selective projections of a carefully self-monitored construction of the self. I can also see how constructions of self through social media can ramify the polymorphous complexities of inner experience, such as neuroses, social anxieties, etc. The post makes me wonder how far one can generalize these particular features of mediated social intercourse. I wonder, for example, how self-conscious the impulses are to post, like, share, and comment. Since there also seems to be a no less pervasive incontinence in posting, a routine lack of awareness that when one posts, one broadcasts representations of self whose connotations, implications, and myriad interpretations are beyond the control, if not the notice, of the self who posts. I wonder how much thought or judgment is generally employed in the instant one decides to post, like, share, comment. How heedful is the one who clicks and types of the fact that in that instant, one broadcasts to exponentially intersecting global networks, information-systems increasingly vulnerable to data-mining corporations and the probes of a transnational security apparatus? Similarly, I wonder how much judgment is exercised by the viewing network, how discerning is the network that infers, interprets, and learns through a loose and distracted assemblage of granular posts into a time-line collage of one's mediated self. Scan the timeline. Click. Read. Comment. Share. Like. Click. Read. What sense of self sits at the terminal interface with the intangible multitude implied in mediated social intercourse? I perceive something generational, or at least temporal, at play here. The post suggests a distance between college and a 9th-grade involvement in mediated social intercourse. There are some high school students in my overlapping networks and their posts suggest all the horror of ramifying the hormonal nightmare of a socializing puberty into the sleepless dimensions of mediated worlds beyond the already brutal trenches of teenage domestic and institutional realities.
ReplyDeleteThere happen to have been two articles related to this post in the Times the same day it was posted:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/fashion/twitter-bios-and-what-they-really-say.html?nl=todaysheadlines&adxnnl=1&emc=edit_th_20131006&adxnnlx=1381064548-/pRjW/dEWFp5oe0viSrYbw
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/technology/selling-secrets-of-phone-users-to-advertisers.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131006&_r=0
The very concept of self-consciousness seems immured in distortions. We can only be conscious of something we are not. If consciousness is a never-ending hall of mirrors, self-consciousness springs from a circle of glass – yet, like a game of telephone, we believe we gaze upon the original thing. But “one can never step through the same river twice”, and the flickering dots of light in the sky are millions of years old.
ReplyDeleteIn perceiving ourselves we divide our identity into observer and observed. Self and persona. Self desires to claim identity, but forgets the validity of the persona as a determining construction. The persona, being outside our immediate, visceral perception of existence, gets labeled as some sort of Other; we either seek to command it, or we completely relinquish it from our sphere of agency.
A false notion of power is the scarier option. Not to see our identities as co-created, pseudo-cybernetic extensions of ourselves, but as edifices over which we have complete control. In formulating existential worldviews, do we oftentimes not fall prey to the same mishap – believing we can control the shape of the cosmos through our perception of it?
To believe in a type of value realism - is this not just confusion between interior and exterior, a belief that we can command the chaos of the world by transcribing our perceptions onto a material reality? Spirituality meanders between the poles of interiority and the extra-conscious divine; yet does the divine exist apart from human perception? Or, does an innate pantheism exist – such as those advocated by Nagel, Teillhard – that unites both through the medium of consciousness?
How do we define the relation between the inner and the outer – distinct, fundamentally opposed; or, conjoined and mutually dependent?
Can the universe become conscious of itself, or are we just playing a game of perceptions?
While the term "selfie" is relatively new in popular culture there is no doubt that the human desire to immortalize their "best self" in an image has been around for centuries. Whether through painting, drawing, sculpture, or photography humans have continually shared images of themselves, which represent an ideal. Take Italian renaissance portraits for example, where portraiture was usually commissioned to commemorate the bravery of a soldier, the beauty of a woman, or the power of a politician. These paintings used imagery and symbolism to convey a persuasive message to the viewer about the subject’s admirable characteristics. Currently, however, not many adolescents are able to commission paintings of themselves to make their friends jealous, but the desire still remains. As we discussed in class humans have always struggled with their unique identity as self-perceived to be somewhere "above" animals and "below" the gods. This struggle perhaps unites us in our insecurities, that if we do not give off a good impression to our peers we run the risk of becoming an outsider, disowned by our own species and down regulated to a lesser being.
ReplyDeleteAdolescents are perhaps especially vulnerable to this fear because they tend to have less authority in societies. We tend to constantly compare ourselves to each other and form an impossible ideal of success. Social media drives this competition by visually suggesting to the individual the specific characteristics that the majority of their friends regard as an ideal. Accordingly, “selfies” have to convey a message, which coheres with these ideals. As adolescents get older these ideals may change but they still manifest themselves with or without social media, it is simply a part of human nature. This fact of human nature is perhaps also driven by our own evolution. By overcoming many evolutionary obstacles in order to achieve the modern human form, it is possible that we have engrained in our minds the need to achieve, and are addicted to that feeling of euphoria after gaining the approval of our own kind.
I find your post and ideas very interesting. I, too, have been thinking of humans and their egos and relating it to social media. The selfie started becoming popular around ten years ago, and the fad hasn't died down since. How people make themselves look in their profile picture on facebook or twitter, is sometimes completely different from what they look like in real life. Even pictures people upload of themselves onto social media sites make them look much different than photos that others may have uploaded of them. But it doesn't stop at the selfie, as you write in your post. It's social media in general...it's statuses, it's wall posts, it's creating the best you you can be. Your online persona may differ from your real life persona, and you may not even notice. Every picture anyone posts is just a subtle way of trying to look like you're having more fun than the others who are on their laptops scrolling through their newsfeed.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of likes one gets on a picture, or a status, or a post is another engaging idea. As humans, we aim to please, we aim to be the best. Perhaps this is because of our cognition, because we want to assign ourselves a certain way. The more like a photo gets, the better the person who posted it feels. Isn't the whole reason we post anything, anyway? The goal is to get the most attention for our post that we can. If we didn't want anyone to notice/pay attention to what we had to say/post, than we wouldn't post it in the first place. This does reflect our insecurities in ourselves. It almost seems as if facebook is one giant confirmation. A confirmation that we're pretty, that people like us, that people think we're funny. This is the only reason we post anything on that website in the first place. Our insecurities drive our need for attention from social media sites that don't actually even matter. But when you post something new, you find yourself repeatedly checking back in to see if you've gotten any more likes, any more comments. And the more attention you get for the post, the better you feel. But why is this? Why do the amount of likes on your profile picture even matter? They don't, not really. But being human means trying to be the best, and so we are always competing for the most attention we can possibly get. Social media is great way to let our insecurities thrive and a great place to get lost in wanting to be noticed and wanting to be the best.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/sunday-review/my-selfie-myself.html?_r=0
ReplyDeleteMy mother, being relatively new to most social media, recently asked me what a selfie is. When I told her it was simply a photo of one's self, hence the word 'selfie', she said "so that's what all of those teens are doing on the metro" and "does 'selfie' also stand for selfish?".
ReplyDeleteMy mother, being relatively new to social media, may actually be on to something. The selfie is selfish. As an acceptable social media platform, the selfie allows us to mask our insecurities as well as our own possible narcissism.
My students from over the summer informed me that they no longer went on facebook because, "My parents have facebook. It's not cool." They preferred to use Instagram, a photo sharing social media app, where selfies are rampant. Keep in mind that these are not children of another generation but 8 years younger than I am, and every one of them had an iPhone.
I agree with the comments above, especially how Anna noted that facebook is a confirmation. Somehow, in our reality, actively searching for confirmation about how attractive we are is not acceptable. However, on social media sites, the selfie is not necessarily seen as desperate or vain.
There is always intent behind a post on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We post pictures hoping that certain people will see them and be jealous or in awe. We post a status about going to Spain and thus tell the world that we have enough money to go there. We instagram photos of our expensive gifts. There is even a Tumblr devoted to the 'Rich Kids of Instagram', which allows the 'average' person to peek into the lives of the most wealthy (and horribly spoiled) teens. We have thus created subtle means of generating status through social media.