The Reflection

 

We are always, to some extent, presenting. To professors and potential employers, we are our more formal, articulate, put-together selves. To friends, we are playful, conversational and laidback. To family, we are casual, honest and exposed. When we go to a work or social-function, we are chattier, dressed-to-impress and well groomed. Whatever we do, wherever we go, we change according to context – to whom we are with and what we are doing. While we may place value judgments on these presentations of the self, no one presentation is, in explicit terms, good or bad or better or worse. They just are different. My sense is that so long as people are playing roles they are comfortable in, they are being true to themselves and therefore, are being their authentic selves. 

 

Just like Erving Goffman says, “expression has been treated in terms of the communicative role it plays during social interaction.” We create conscious and unconscious judgments of people, our initial impressions, based on the way they express themselves at the time of our social interaction with them. From these “claims and promises,” we evaluate others’ character. We box people into a certain role that they “should” play based on our previously formed impressions of them. 

 

The problem is, our initial impression of people is one-dimensional.  People, unlike our more permanent thoughts, change and evolve over time.  When a person behaves in a way that is seemingly contradictory to our impression of that person, we perceive this behavior as inauthentic or un-true. We feel misled or deceived by the “actor.” We jump to the conclusion that this person must be fake.  A poser.  A Phony.  This “discrediting” occurrence or behavior leads us to question the person’s character and the role he/she is playing. 

 

The problem with this natural reaction is that our method of evaluating others’ authenticity is flawed. My survey results underscore this. 68% of respondents reported “On the Internet, people often create an image of themselves that is less than authentic.”  This finding is surprising, considering 99% of all respondents reported that they present a realistic image of themselves on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.  After sitting with this data, I have come to the conclusion that there is a misconception behind what the word “authenticity” actually means. Like I mentioned, we do not have one fixed identity, rather, just as Goffman says, “we are always playing a role.”  As long as we are comfortable in the role we are playing and the image we are projecting, we are acting authentically.  Being authentic is being yourself.  Being yourself is being comfortable in your skin.  Therefore, being authentic is being comfortable with your presentation of yourself.

 

My sense is most of us feel most comfortable in intimate contexts, either alone or in private settings where we are with people we love and trust.  It is in these contexts that we feel most at ease and safe.  Fittingly, it is also in these contexts that we are most authentic.  My interview video confirms peoples’ tendency to feel most comfortable in these more “private” contexts.  My project explores the antithesis; how might or might not people feel comfortable in the very public presentation of themselves via social media? 

 

My initial impulse was to say we are inauthentic online by virtue of the fact that we so carefully curate our identities. There’s so much literature out there that underscores this notion.  But as my project developed, I realized we are always presenting some version of ourselves, so how is our online presentation of ourselves any different?  We don’t walk around advertising our insecurities and failures.  We speak of our successes.  The same goes online. We might edit our pictures to put forth our most attractive selves on social media’s public platform.  Editing pictures, which 76% of my survey respondents do, un-tagging ugly photos, posting happy statuses – these are all ways that we project a certain image of ourselves. Since the platform is so public, we are most comfortable when others know the “good,” not the stuff that makes us vulnerable and insecure. We are still acting authentically. My survey and interview data confirm this truth.  Out of more than 124 University of Michigan students who responded to the survey, 97% report that they are comfortable with themselves, at least some of the time.  Because respondents are comfortable with themselves, they are able to project some version or image of themselves with accuracy to the online world via social media.  The video exposé features a few girls who comment that their social media identities are just one projection of themselves – and, that it’s an honest or representative projection. My findings from the survey data expose that 97% of respondents think their friends do look like themselves on social media sites and 99% of respondents agreed that they present a realistic image of themselves on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. This data tells me that my peers agree: We are always putting forth a version of ourselves; our identities online are just one version of the full Self. If we’re comfortable with the presentation we put forth, we are acting authentically.