(HT @Tiphereth – Samsung ad from presentation at SMCSYD)
On Tuesday evening I attended the Social Media Club event titled Social Personas: How different is the social media you from the real you? I found this to be a very interesting and thought provoking session about human behaviours and the way in which social media and technology advancements have created behavioural change in society.
Bernard Salt’s presentation discussed the behaviours that generations X and Y deemed acceptable in the social media space. The research highlighted “superficial” activities that took place in Facebook and found that these behaviours are a lot more acceptable to the Y generation than X. The activities that were most commonly admitted to were:
- Posting a status that is designed to draw compliments/feedback from your friends
- Un-tagging yourself from an unflattering photo
- Searching through hundreds of photos of yourself to use as the perfect Facebook profile picture
We have been taking part in these activities long before the birth of social media. When we get back from a holiday we don’t put the unflattering pictures in the photo album do we? We don’t frame the teenage photos of ourselves with puppy fat and pimples and place it on the mantle piece in lounge room, do we? and as far as posting a status update to draw compliments and feedback, isn’t that called a conversation?
I believe the difference lies in the exposure that social media presents us with. Our conversations are no longer between the two people talking, our mantle piece in the lounge room and holiday photo albums are not only reserved for close family and friends. As Bernard highlighted, “the ‘always-on’ nature of social media means that now, more than ever our lives are like a shop window… if there is one thing that new technology has enabled it is the capacity for someone to project an idealised version of themselves into the ether”.
So the evening’s discussions got me thinking about my own social persona and the way in which I project myself to the world in the digital space. My first thought was “oh crap! My Facebook profile pic is a computer generated image of me kissing myself! What does that say about my social persona?”
While I’m sure we would all like to think that we are extremely transparent and authentic, when it comes to our own brand, there is usually an acceptable amount of manipulation – and I don’t believe this behaviour is exclusive to social media!
Good note!
I think social media is also developing a self-psychiatrist within its adopters. The ability to tweak one’s own persona and get an immediate feedback from contacts is an incredible remedy to those suffering from introvertism.
and even more incredible for the extroverts!
Great points Annabel, definitely the stuff everyone on the panel was trying to get across. No-one is ready for 100% warts-and-all transparency, because its not how we as a society behave. I do believe that Gen Y are probably more conscious of how they present themselves in social and that could relate to life-stage (being out and about, singles or moving from relationship to relationship). Wonder how many Gen X’s who find themselves suddenly single retouch their photos? Which comes back to “psychographics” versus “demographics”. Maybe it relates to degrees of idealisation? If the persona we project just looks like us on a good day, surely that’s not too superficial is it?
Thanks for the comment Tip. I think the key difference between Gen Y and X on social media is that Gen Y are used to the sharing aspect and having their life on show. They understand the importance of putting your best face forward because at any given time someone may come across your profile picture. This behaviour often gets interpreted to suggest superficiality.
love it and you are right on the money, it is not a new concept to only allow a certain aspect of yourself visible to those you meet and interact with. This is definitely not brought on by Social Media. Love your thoughts on the subject and in particular your reference to your facebook photo… It prompted me to look at my own and I realised I have a black + white image of a young girl, holding two handguns holding up a cowboy, while her emasculated boyfriend stands by her side with both hands blocking his ears… Hmmm…. what does this say about me?
Its interesting, isn’t it Nick? I am a bit worried about your representation, although it def demonstrates your amazing sense of humour
. The other fun one is to go back through your Facebook status updates and try and figure out what THEY mean! eek!! X
Are you kidding me? You have seen my updates, they are like a page long, then linking out to a random image of a dog buying t/a food! Then again, if that is my facebook persona, I’m cool with that haha thanks again, awesome post.
Hey interesting book you may like to read on human behaviour and decision making, I have it at home and just finished a week or so ago, called Nudge. If keen I can bring it next fam get together. Check it out at amazon here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness/dp/0300122233/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281654374&sr=8-2
Def interested in that book!