Maybe probably the most disingenuous issues we are saying to ourselves is that our social media posts don’t replicate our true personality. In folks’s bios, you see “I’m right here for enjoyable, my tweets should not me” and it sounds actually cool, in any case, aren’t all of us meant to easily have enjoyable on IG or TikTok and hold it transferring? Or take pleasure in a debate with a random stranger and transfer on? What makes the issues we are saying and the way we are saying them a giant deal? However arguments have proven that our social media presence can current an correct depiction of who we’re in actual life, even when we don’t want it to be so.
Dr Margeret Corridor and Dr Simon Caton as soon as tried to find out how a lot of individuals’s character will be revealed via their social media presence. “We had been searching for the ‘Large 5’: openness to expertise, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. We discovered that we might predict the place an individual fell on the size for every trait with a excessive degree of accuracy.” Dr. Corridor continued, “posts about TV programmes had been significantly revealing.” After learning about 500 folks on Fb, they concluded that somebody, maybe a possible employer, can probably observe your character via your social media pages.
Maybe it might be rash to swiftly kind an opinion on who an individual is thru their social media posts. I’d agree that social media isn’t actual life and generally, we determine how we generally need folks to understand us. Folks are likely to create a pretend character for themselves on-line to appease different folks. Some could use social media to fulfill their alter egos and will usually embody part of themselves they need they could possibly be in the actual world – like an introvert being fairly extroverted on-line. Or a shy individual being tremendous pleasant and well-liked on a social app. However how a lot of ourselves can we probably tuck away earlier than all of it comes flooding out, and for a way lengthy too? What occurs when folks observe a sure sample in the best way you write, discuss and act over time? Particularly when they’re detrimental to a sure social group?
The world of social media usually witnesses folks apologising for one thing they mentioned or did years in the past, insisting that these posts, movies or tweets don’t replicate their true character and had been borne of naivety or comedy. A sure consumer just lately wrote a sure thread, apologising for occasions he has damage ladies on Twitter (now X) via his tweets. He insisted he was younger and silly and the tweets don’t replicate his present character. It was a lie. Between 2013-2023, his tweets had been constant – they had been what he known as jokes about sexually assaulting ladies. For 10 years, he had constantly tweeted about abusing ladies, insisting that if he was in a sure energy dynamic the place he needed to relate with feminine staff or college students, he was going to reap the benefits of them sexually. However his apology had phrases like “younger and silly” and “now not displays my character”, but when for 10 years, folks recognized you as an abuser, isn’t that merely who you’re?
I’m of the varsity of thought that the best way you utilize social media is a portrayal of who you’re and it might not be misplaced for folks to make assumptions about you based mostly on what you tweet. After I meet somebody new offline or on-line, I take a look at their tweets to get a glimpse into their thought processes. Social media, significantly Twitter, to an extent, offers a fake sense of anonymity and safety that will get folks careless and susceptible to baring their innermost ideas with little care for a way far their posts can journey. Maybe on different social apps, it is going to take extra effort – make a video, submit an image with captions – however on Twitter, it’s seamless; you merely want to speak with out giving it an excessive amount of thought or effort. So in case your tweets are stuffed with misogyny, insults, abuse, a lot anger and bile for different customers, isn’t it a glimpse of who you’re? What makes you suppose I’d need somebody such as you in my house, on-line or offline? Why would I wait to fulfill you bodily to really perceive who you’re? Wouldn’t I be justified to maintain you at bay?
We will hold telling ourselves our tweets or social media posts should not who we’re, or we will be sincere and deal with them as mirrors, holding them up excessive to see our reflections.
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