Abstract
This paper argues that idealistic self-presentations on Social Networking Sites (SNS) such as Facebook risk damaging other users’ self-esteem by portraying and disseminating unrealistic personas, ideals and lifestyles and thereby triggering upward social comparisons. Using the concept of identity as a performance, as coined by Goffman (1959), this paper explores the opportunities for identity performance afforded by SNS such as Facebook through their architecture and design. Citing the research results reported in several peer-reviewed articles to support its argument, this paper also highlights the link between idealistic self-presentations, upward social comparisons on Facebook and negative impacts on other users’ self-esteem.
Keywords: Social media, social networking sites, Facebook, self-esteem, depression, social comparison
Life is a performance. As humans, during our face-to-face social interactions, we perform the identities we construct for ourselves in an attempt to engage with our peers and gain their acceptance. Using various verbal and non-verbal cues, we adapt these identity performances according to our audience and social context – whether it be among family at home, friends at dinner, or colleagues in the workplace. In comparison to the offline space, however, the online space affords a much wider stage for identity performance to take place. Much like theatre actors playing a role, when we perform our identities online through SNS such as Facebook, we can choose to take on a persona and portray an ideal, mood or lifestyle that may differ greatly from our personal reality in an attempt to put on our very best performance and win popularity with our audiences. These idealistic self-presentations on SNS, however, can trigger other users to make upward social comparisons, creating the assumption that their lives are less happy and fulfilling than others’ and damaging their self-esteem.
Identity as a performance is not a new concept or one that is synonymous only with SNS such as Facebook. Indeed, as Goffman (1959) highlights (as cited in Pearson, 2009, para 4), identity as a performance is an inherent part of human social interaction. Much like theatrical performances, identity performances are not static, but fluid – we construct and perform our identities to adapt appropriately to our various audiences and social contexts. In comparison with face-to-face social interactions, however, the online space utilised by SNS such as Facebook affords users greater ability to experiment with, control and mediate their performed identities as well as the ability to eliminate physical non-verbal cues to present themselves in a way which may greatly differ from their personal reality (Pearson, 2009). Indeed, Chou and Edge (2012) highlight that individuals tend to present themselves in a favourable light on their Facebook profile pages. With face-to-face interactions, people are restricted in their identity performances by the physical non-verbal cues that may reveal additional information concealed or conflicted by verbal cues. In contrast, however, with online interactions on Facebook, users are disembodied and removed from their physical non-verbal cues, allowing them the freedom to construct and perform any variety of identities they wish to portray.
When presenting themselves online on Facebook, users have a variety of tools and techniques at their disposal to construct and perform their chosen identities. These are provided by the affordances of the platform’s architecture and design, and include the ability to choose and upload a desired profile photo and other images a user wishes to share, the ability to search and traverse across the platform to include weak ties in addition to close ties to expand a user’s ‘Friends’ network, and the ability to use ‘Like’s as a metric for popularity.
In their study of children aged 11-16 across three European countries, Mascheroni, Vincent, and Jimenez (2015, p. 5) found that most children – both girls and boys – edited their profile photos on SNS platforms to portray themselves in an idealistic way rather than as their real-life selves. Moreover, although SNS users may take multiple ‘selfies’ (a self-portrait image, typically captured with a smartphone) over a given period, they are selective in which of these images they choose to post to their profile pages (Wagner, Aguirre, & Summer, 2016, para 29). Furthermore, as Vogel, Rose, Roberts, and Eckles (2014, p. 207) highlight, SNS such as Facebook also enable users to selectively upload to their profile pages a variety of images which portray themselves and their lives in a way which best represents how they wish to be portrayed – rather than in a way which resembles their personal reality. Collectively, these carefully selected images provide a vivid visual representation of a user’s chosen performed identity for others to view, further reinforcing and manifesting their constructed, idealised identity in the minds of others.
In addition to selectively uploading images consistent with their performed online identities to their profile pages, Facebook users have the ability to not only directly search for weak ties via the site’s search function, but also to traverse the ‘Friends’ networks of other users to locate weak ties in an attempt to further expand their own ‘Friends’ network. While the ability to add weak ties to a Facebook user’s social network provides the user with clear benefits, such as the ability to maintain contact with people they may have otherwise forgotten or lost contact with in the rapid and ever-changing pace of everyday life, it also presents the opportunity to make a user’s social network appear much larger and more far-reaching than it is in reality. Weak ties – such as those with ex-colleagues and other distant connections – serve a positive function in information and support exchange and in creating a heterogenous social network, but they lack the closeness, depth and intimacy of strong ties – such as those with family, close friends and romantic partners (Pearson, 2009). As Cummings et al. (2000) argued (as cited in Baym, Zhang, Kunkel, Ledbetter, & Lin, 2007, p. 737), relationships which are established and predominately maintained online, as in the case of weak ties, are typically of lower quality than those established and predominately maintained offline, as in the case of strong ties. Characterised by low time, effort and emotional investment, the arbitrary inclusion of weak ties in a Facebook user’s ‘Friends’ network enables the user to convey a seemingly large and far-reaching social network of friends. Whereas face-to-face interactions do not typically present opportunities to elicit information about an individual’s social networks, Facebook explicitly allows users to elicit information about both the quantity and quality of people in a user’s social network (Vogel et al., 2014). As Chou and Edge (2012, p. 118) highlight, both the quantity and the perceived attractiveness of a user’s Facebook friends can be construed by other users as a reflection of the user’s popularity and “social attractiveness”. Therefore, despite fostering in many cases predominately high-quantity, low-quality weak ties, Facebook users can utilise the affordances of the platform to convey to other users the impression of not only a seemingly large, but also a seemingly high-quality network of friends, further perpetuating their idealistic identities.
Additionally, Facebook users can utilise the platform’s ‘Like’ function as a metric for their popularity and the popularity of other users. According to Chen and Lee (2013), at the end of 2011, Facebook users had collectively uploaded 250 million photos and clicked Facebook’s ‘Like’ button 2.7 billion times each day. As well as providing users with a way of expressing their agreement with or pleasure at another user’s post (text or image) and maintaining casual engagement with weak ties, Facebook’s ‘Like’ button also functions as a self-promotion tool (Chen & Lee, 2013). The more ‘Like’s a Facebook user accrues for their particular post, the more popular the post, and, moreover, they as a person, are perceived to be. Therefore, accumulating ‘Like’s on Facebook by posting selective content tailored to their perceived audience is another way for users to portray to others an idealistic self-presentation that depicts themselves as being socially popular.
As Pearson (2009) highlights, Facebook users utilise and manipulate these tools and techniques afforded by Facebook’s architecture and design to construct, convey and continuously revise their self-presentation, creating a “consensual social hallucination” (Pearson, 2009, para 8). In addition, they can replicate the virtual self they have presented on Facebook across multiple SNS platforms, further reinforcing and linking themselves back to their chosen performed, idealistic identity.
According to Jan, Ahmad, and Soomro (2017, p. 336), approximately 88% of Facebook users made social comparisons on Facebook, with 98% of those comparisons being upward social comparisons. Likewise, Vogel et al. (2014) found that people on average tend to make more upward than downward social comparisons on Facebook. Upward social comparisons can be defined as the comparison an individual makes between themselves and those they perceive as being superior to them and possessing positive attributes, while downward social comparisons can be defined as the comparison an individual makes between themselves and those they perceive as being inferior to them and possessing negative attributes (Jan et al., 2017). Walther, Van Der Heide, Kim, Westerman, and Tong (as cited in Jan et al., 2017, p. 336) argued the majority of Facebook users utilised the platform to find out what is happening in other people’s lives, and judge other users based on the cues they present on their profile pages. Moreover, Vogel et al. (2014) argue that one of the reasons individuals use SNS – whether consciously or unconsciously – is to provide themselves with a basis upon which to make social comparisons when self-evaluating themselves. As Vogel et al. (2014) highlight, SNS such as Facebook provide the perfect platform for individuals to create seemingly flawless, idealistic self-presentations, enabling them to selectively post content and allow or delete content from other users to present themselves in a way which is consistent with their ideals and how they wish to be perceived, rather than in a way which is consistent with reality. This is in contrast to the offline space, where individuals are not afforded the luxury of asynchronous time, disembodiment, or ‘delete’ buttons to craft their identities in such a way. As Chen and Lee (2013) highlight, those who use Facebook frequently are generally more exposed to the idealistic, positive self-presentations of other users. Consequently, they found frequent Facebook interaction is linked to psychological distress by causing increased “communication overload”, feelings of “relative deprivation”, and reduced self-esteem (Chen & Lee, 2013, p. 728). Similarly, Jan et al. (2017) found that an increase in time spent on Facebook was directly linked to a decrease in users’ self-esteem.
It is believed that humans have an innate drive to compare themselves to others, which fulfills their affiliation and self-evaluation needs (Vogel et al., 2014). But while upward social comparisons can be beneficial in providing inspiration for self-improvement, in most cases, it causes those making the comparisons to feel inadequate, “not good enough”, and as though others’ lives are happier than theirs (Chou & Edge, 2012; Vogel et al., 2014). According to Festinger (as cited in Jan et al., 2017, p. 331-332), SNS users tend to make social comparisons based on factors including perceived wealth, beauty, popularity and social class. With many Facebook users portraying idealistic self-presentations based upon these and other social factors, this has led to frequent Facebook users believing other users – especially those they do not know well offline – are living happier and more fulfilling lives than themselves. Indeed, consistent with previous research findings, Feinstein, Hershenberg, Bhatia, Latack, Meuwly, and Davila (2013, p. 167) found that social comparisons on Facebook were linked to depressive symptoms. Similarly, Vogel et al. (2014) highlight previous studies showing high-frequency Facebook usage is linked to an increase in depression and a decrease in well-being.
For humans, self-esteem serves as a fundamental method of self-evaluation. As Vogel et al. (2014) highlight, self-esteem is associated with an individual’s feelings of self-worthiness and competence, and, as such, also serves to position individuals in terms of their perceived social acceptance and to provide meaning to their lives. As well as being a stable state that develops over time, self-esteem is also a fluid state, changing according to day-to-day situations and contexts (Vogel et al., 2014). With frequent, or even temporary exposure to cues from predominately idealistic self-presentations on Facebook – with its over 1.5 billion daily active users worldwide (Facebook, 2018) – it can be argued that these saturated, idealistic self-presentations can trigger upward social comparisons in both individuals with typically low and high self-esteem, consequently damaging their self-esteem (Vogel et al., 2014).
There is a clear fundamental flaw with making upward social comparisons on Facebook – individuals are comparing their realistic offline selves to the idealised online selves of others (Vogel et al., 2014). It is no surprise, then, that Vogel et al. (2014) found those exposed to upward social comparisons reported greater discrepancies between their real and their ideal selves and poorer self-esteem than when they were exposed to downward social comparisons. In addition, other flaws with making upward social comparisons on Facebook include what Chou and Edge (2012, p. 117) describe as the “availability heuristic” and “correspondence bias”. When making social comparisons, Facebook users tend to judge others based on examples they can easily recall (the availability heuristic), especially when their ‘Friends’ network is extensive and time-consuming to manage. Since Facebook users tend to present themselves in an idealistic light, those users making social comparisons are generally exposed to a seemingly endless stream of positive information, comments and images from their ‘Friends’ via their Facebook News Feed. With Facebook’s News Feed providing such quick access to and such easily-digestible pieces of idealistic content from users’ profile pages, it is easy for Facebook users to recall this idealistic content when forming an impression of others, often leading them to assume that others are living happier lives than themselves (Chou & Edge, 2012). Additionally, correspondence bias refers to the tendency of individuals to assume that the words and actions of others are reflective of their personality, rather than subject to their situation (Chou & Edge, 2012). For example, when Facebook users post photos depicting themselves as happy, those viewing the images tend to conclude that the person is inherently happy, without taking into consideration the situational factors that made them appear happy in the photos. Combined, the availability heuristic and correspondence bias serve to give Facebook users – especially frequent users and those with many ‘Friends’ they do not know well personally offline (weak ties) – the impression that others are leading happier, more fulfilling lives than themselves, consequently damaging their self-esteem. Indeed, Chou & Edge (2012, p. 117) found that those who have been Facebook users for longer agreed more with the idea that others were happier and less with the idea that “life is fair”, while those who spent more time on Facebook each week and included more weak ties within their Facebook ‘Friends’ network also agreed more with the idea that others were happier and had better lives than themselves.
Evidently, idealistic self-presentations on Facebook – with their prevalence, pervasiveness, ease of access and flawed inconsistence with reality – risk damaging self-esteem by portraying and disseminating unrealistic personas, ideals and lifestyles and triggering upward social comparisons.
References
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Chen, W., & Lee, K. H. (2013). Sharing, Liking, Commenting, and Distressed? The Pathway Between Facebook Interaction and Psychological Distress. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Vol.16(10), pp. 728-734. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0272
Chou, H-T. G., & Edge, N. (2012). ‘‘They Are Happier and Having Better Lives than I Am’’: The Impact of Using Facebook on Perceptions of Others’ Lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Vol.15(2), pp. 117-121. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0324
Facebook. (2018). Company Info. Retrieved from https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
Feinstein, B. A., Hershenberg, R., Bhatia, V., Latack, J. A., Meuwly, N., & Davila, J. (2013). Negative Social Comparison on Facebook and Depressive Symptoms: Rumination as a Mechanism. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol.2(3), pp. 161-170. doi:10.1037/a0033111
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Mascheroni, G., Vincent, J., & Jiminez, E. (2015). “Girls are addicted to likes so they post semi-naked selfies”: Peer mediation, normativity and the construction of identity online. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 9(1), doi:10.5817/CP2015-1-5
Pearson, E. (2009). All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks. First Monday, 14(3). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2162/2127
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LIFE IS A PERFORMANCE: FACEBOOK, SELF-REPRESENTATION AND SELF-ESTEEM by Lana Galea is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The concept of performance in self representation is a fantastic discussion point and one I wish I had incorporated into my own paper. I discussed people’s motivations for posting online, finding that motives are largely narcissistic and self serving however it was hard to find reason as to why we are driven to want to boost ourselves up in this way. The concern for upward comparison is a very real concern and a behaviour that even I find myself doing. There is no doubt for me that it creates a large burden on ones self-esteem and an unrealistic perspective of life.
Hi Aiden
I have just written a rather lengthy post about self presentation on Michelle’s paper which you might be interested in. In my paper I also focused on self presentations on Twitter and how sportspeople use self presentation in various ways to help build and sustain reputation. Twitter I argued is a good tool for this as it’s affordances of immediacy and fluidity along with some of the more technical aspects make it easier for sportspeople.
If you get a chance to read my paper I would value your thoughts, and also if you have a chance to read my post on Michelle’s paper about self-presentation. There are some great scholarly articles on it too.
cheers
Steph
Hi Aidan,
Thanks for your comment! As you say, making upward social comparisons can take a big toll on people’s self-esteem, and it’s an easy trap to fall into when using Facebook or other similar forms of social media, especially frequently.
I read your paper after reading your comment. I like how you mention “the heavily-curated representation” of one’s identity that’s made possible through the online space – that’s a great way to put it. As I tried to highlight through my paper, the online space allows for a much wider scope of identity performance to take place. In the online space, people are not limited by their body language, lack of confidence, or physical environment, and this allows for a certain degree of safety, comfort and confidence to express themselves in any way they wish. As you argue, this means the identity that many portray through the online space is often heavily and meticulously constructed and curated.
I enjoyed reading your arguments about identity deception. It’s interesting that as you note in your examples, in some online spaces such as online role-playing games (a space I’m not all that familiar with, so it was interesting to read about), identity deception is actually encouraged to a certain degree. I like how you also highlight that Instagram similarly allows for a certain degree of identity deception to take place through tools such as filters and other editing tools.
Given that so much of our daily lives these days increasingly revolves around the online space and social media, I wonder how people will define, construct and manage their physical world identities moving forward? Are we reaching a point where people will be completely out of touch with their physical world identities (or even consciously avoid them), and what implications will this have on different facets of their lives (self-development, education, relationships, careers, etc)?
Thanks Lana, I appreciate your perspective on my paper. I feel we’ve both chosen quite closely linked topics so it’s really interesting to hear your opinion.
I would say we are moving towards a world where our online identity may become even more important than our real world identity, I know many people who have more connections built online than in the real world and even I would say I have roughly equal the amount of social connections built online as I do in the real world.
The impact of this seems to be relatively unknown however their does seem to be a correlation with younger generations and relationships. Their are many articles being published in the past few years about how millennial’s are staying single and creating less real world connections. This can be seen in Japan where young people choose not to find relationships rather pay for companionship with services such as host bars.
Hi Aidan,
Our online identities can be seen as more important than our offline identities certainly as far as our public reputations are concerned. Offline, what you say/do can be easily forgotten over time, and can take place in a private space, whereas online, people need to be constantly mindful of their digital footprint, which will remain online for a global public audience to see for many years to come.
It’s a very interesting point you mention about how millennials and future generations are often making less real-world connections, with the online space becoming increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives. I like your example of Japan. I’ve not been there myself yet, but I’ve heard about these bars you mention where people can buy companionship, so to speak. That’s such an interesting concept, and one which I think is a compelling sign of the times. It would be really interesting to read any research articles on the topic! What motivates people to buy companionship, do they feel their need for human connection is met by these bars and how so, do they prefer these kinds of human connections over building free and offline connections?
Our online identities undoubtedly have a greater reach with people from across the globe having access to certain information we present online. As you say our online identities are much more permanent so what we put out there in the online space can be much more impactful than something we may say in passing to a friend or coworker for example the director James Gunn who was fired from his position as director of the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy 2 for tweets he had made 10 years prior. He has since been reinstated but it begs the question of how important and how much impact should our online actions have.
I haven’t done a lot of research into host bars and the companionship industry in japan but there are some interesting documentaries out there. I found this paper which is an interesting read.
https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=U95wilLL5gkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA200&dq=japanese+host+clubs&ots=RsgugOErds&sig=Goo7-WyBykjm6QNhDANRLTUGsvs#v=onepage&q=japanese%20host%20clubs&f=false
Hi Aidan,
I hadn’t heard about that example you mentioned about the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 director’s tweets (thanks for sharing!), but I’ve heard about quite a few other instances where people have been bitten back on the butt so to speak for comments they posted online years ago. And I agree, it does beg the question how important and how much impact should our online actions have, especially comments made in the distant past. In the offline space, it feels like we’re more forgiving of past mistakes/lessons learnt than in the online space perhaps? Does the permanency of our digital footprints/shadows mean that we need to constantly walk on eggshells in the online space lest our past comes back to bite us on the butt in years to come too?
Thanks so much for sharing the article on Japanese host bars! I’m looking forward to reading it! 🙂
It does certainly seem that the term forgive and forget doesn’t apply to the online space, however is extremely prevalent and even encouraged in the real world. Surely we don’t hold online actions to a higher standard, if that is the case I can see a very problematic image of our future.
Hi Lana, I really enjoyed reading your paper! You have pointed out that performing different identities and the act of self comparison is no new thing. For example, women have been comparing themselves to models, celebrities etc in magazines long before SNSs were created. SNS have no doubt heightened this issue though as now we feel the pressure to self compare to real life people and people that we know, rather than celebrity figures and so on which only creates more pressure and self esteem issues. Good job!
Hi Krystal,
Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂 Yes absolutely, identity performances and upward social comparisons have been around way before SNS like Facebook. Isn’t it interesting how as you mention, a lot of upward social comparisons have historically been made between “real-life people” and celebrities/models/etc. (through films, TV, fashion magazines, etc), but now “real-life people” are these days, with SNS like Instagram, also becoming celebrities/”influencers” themselves? 🙂 That’s a lot of upward social comparisons for people to contend with!
This is a great point Krystal, the concept of celebrity elevates a person from my perspective so it makes that upward comparison less logical and more easily dismissed however the abundance of more everyday social media influencers combined with real world friends makes these expectations on oneself much more real.
Thanks Lana for an informative and engaging paper. Not much to say apart from well done. I will come back to this one shortly. Just thought you might be interested in the following YouTube video which pretty much sums up your paper.
Ahkuoi, D., & Ahkuoi, G. (Producer). (2016). Lion King – Circle of Life Parody (Virtual Life). [ Video] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iimlq6KuFpA
Hahaha excellent video JJose! Sums it up pretty well! 😀
Thanks for your comment!
Hi Lana,
Great paper! Some individuals compare themselves to others and question the way they are portrayed, the way they are dressed and sometimes, they question their identity. Social networks are a major influence on self-presentation – it is a factor we see every day on our channel.
Kristal made a good point on fashion magazines being an influence to young teenagers on how they should look and feel because I remember when I was younger the Girlfriend magazine used to be a go-to marketing material to find what my favourite celebrity wore or/and what the current fashion market is like. Nowadays, Facebook and Instagram are the go-to where infamous ‘influencers’ are being more recognisable and showcasing their favourite outfits who are influencing (asking) youngsters to keep up with the current fashion market.
I thoroughly enjoyed your paper – well done. 🙂
Hi Amanda,
Thanks for your comment! 🙂 I absolutely agree with the point you and Krystal made about girls’/fashion magazines being a major influence on teenagers’ body image and self-esteem not so many years ago (I remember it too! :). So now that influence has largely shifted from being models and celebrities in magazines to ‘influencers’ on Instagram and other SNS.
Admittedly, I’m not too familiar with these ‘influencers’, so I’m curious as to how they establish themselves as being ‘influencers’ and how they gain the power to influence so many followers?
It’s a crazy world we live in.
I believe that people who call themselves ‘influencers’ are self-claimed influencers – someone who other users follow, look up to or follow everywhere they go. Fashion brands such as Fashionnova, ask users’ to be their ambassador which prompts other users to follow these self-claimed influencers and motivate users to buy their products.
Lana
An excellent article about girl’s self esteem, envy, and Instagram influencers is Chae (2018). She explains how social media influencers can range from teenage girls to models, and up-and-coming actors, who portray themselves and their lifestyles on Instagram. These influencers can cause followers to become envious of their perceived success and social standing. As you discovered in your research, social comparison comes in two types, upwards and downwards. In the downwards comparison others are seen as inferior and help with self esteem. While upwards comparisons can cause low self esteem. Chae (2018) also states that social comparison can be linked to personality traits such as “those who a) are highly conscious about the self, b) are interested in others’ opinions, and c) have a negative self-view.” Maybe this could be a topic for another paper?
Chae, J. (2018). Explaining females; envy toward social media influencers. Media Psychology, 21(2), 246-262. doi:10.1080/15213269.2017.1328312
Thanks for sharing this reference JJose! 🙂 It’s always interesting to delve deeper into a topic!
When you mention “social comparison can be linked to personality traits such as “those who a) are highly conscious about the self, b) are interested in others’ opinions, and c) have a negative self-view”, do you mean those making the social comparisons, or the ones they’re comparing themselves to?
Hi Lana
I really enjoyed reading your essay. It always seems funny to me, that non-celebrities can have hundreds or even thousands of ‘friends’, on their friend list. It’s quite understandable for celebrities to have so many because they generally have large fan-bases, but it does seem excessive for normal average people until you start delving into the links between self-esteem and self-representation, and online performance. Acquiring a large number of online friends can boost self-esteem by providing a sense of popularity. The more friends one has, the more ‘likes’ one will receive for posts thereby perpetuating this feeling of being liked and popular.
In order to maintain this, people have to ‘perform’ and present an idealised version of themselves that is not like reality at all. What you said in your essay is true. It can present this idealised and unattainable impression that can affect others in a negative way as they start to think that there may be something wrong with them because their life is not like that.
Facebook profiles can be manipulated in such a way by only uploading the most favourable photos and posting only the most exciting updates. Instagram is probably worse for this than Facebook, but there are many Facebook users who do this. What saddens me is that there are people who have died trying to duplicate dangerous photos that so-called ‘influencers’ have posted.
I read this article recently about couples posting stupidly dangerous photos on Instagram: https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/warnings/instagram-couple-who-posted-photo-of-them-kissing-out-of-a-moving-train-slammed-on-social/news-story/85c62971a711b5dc23d27006aab450d9
It is sad to think that these people do these things simply for attention and to boost their self-esteem.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks so much for your comment. You’re right – Instagram is probably worse than Facebook these days when it comes to idealised self-presentations via images.
Thanks for sharing that news article. It was an interesting read and highlights just what lengths some people will go to for attention/popularity/money on social media. I remember reading about this similar case a while ago, in which a couple that had over 10,000 Instagram followers died in Yosemite NP in the US, allegedly while trying to take selfies to share with their followers: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/02/yosemite-couple-death-selfie-photography-travel-blog-taft-point. Several other cases of people trying to take the perfect selfie/video for their social media followers, resulting in deaths, have also been reported, including: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/06/high-on-life-deaths-youtube-stars-waterfall-die and https://nypost.com/2018/09/06/israeli-teen-falls-to-his-death-while-taking-selfie-in-yosemite/. This is a really interesting topic and would make for an interesting paper in itself. What motivates some SNS users to go through such great (and dangerous) lengths to please their audiences and/or amass large followings? Is it fame, money, a mixture of both, or just simply wanting to be ‘liked’/admired? Why do they think it is worth risking their lives for? If we think of films, we similarly see dangerous acts happening for the sake of pleasing audiences, but these are usually done by trained professionals – stunt performers. In the social media space, however, we have typically everyday, untrained individuals risking their lives to please their audiences. Are we creating a culture where popularity/’likes’ is more important than our own self-preservation?
I’m shocked but not really, people have been doing stupid things to impress for thousands of years! Think of the Darwin Awards that have been promoted for many years now, started in 1985 on a Usenet group, there are stupid people doing stupid things even without social media. Now there is just an easier way to spread it around. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards
https://darwinawards.com
Do you recall that daft couple, one shot the other as they had a phone book or something in front of their chest to put on Youtube! https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/29/us/fatal-youtube-stunt/index.html
seriously!
It is sad but I also in some respects don’t have a lot of sympathy for some of these cases.
Something to also consider when talking bout followers is that many of those people with, influencers being a high proportion have probably bought those followers. You can buy 1,000 followers for $99 and the more followers you buy the more popular you get and therefore a marketing managers dream. You status improves and you are then afforded more features such as Swipe Up with links to websites, something that is not an affordance for us mere mortals on less than 10,000 followers.
This is a clear example of Barabasi’s Power Law theory, where the power law states that those that already have power will get more. This is a feature of not only those on Insta but most social media channels as well as blogs etc.
He was a network theorist looking at the feature of networks and network theory. His study in relation to the internet in 2012, discussed how a new ‘node’ or person would more likely connect to a pre-existing node, that already is linked to other nodes. This is a ‘rich-get-richer effect’, more connected nodes or people get more followers, and gain more followers and more followers at the expense of the less-connected (Barabasi 2012). https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11486
This network theory is also used by scientists for other areas of life like traffic patterns or such as protein P35 in a ‘cancer hub’. Clay Shirky also has some interesting theories on this with regard to those that get heard as they become more powerful and those that get left behind and are not heard at all.
http://www.shirky.com/writings/herecomeseverybody/powerlaw_weblog.html
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks so much for your comment – it was so interesting to read! I had actually never heard of the Darwin Awards but have read about it now thanks to your post, so thanks! 🙂 Also hadn’t heard about the case with the girlfriend shooting her boyfriend with a phone book on his chest until now either. Wow. It’s really mind-boggling the things people will do for popularity!
“There are stupid people doing stupid things even without social media. Now there is just an easier way to spread it around.” I totally agree with you here. It’s not that social media has made people do stupidly dangerous things, but that it’s given these people a global stage for them to share their stunts. I do think though that social media has played a part in encouraging more people to try these stunts, and for them to happen more often. In the offline space, you might get a few friends or a crowd of people watching your stunt, but through social media, you can create a viral hit with it (just as the couple in the article you shared were trying to do) that can be watched by thousands or even millions. So people become attracted to the idea of getting a massive amount of followers on social media by doing something risky.
I also like how you mention the “Power Law Theory” – there definitely seems to be a lot of this at play on the major social media platforms! Followers = power, and as you point out, ‘followers’ seems to be a metric for how much power a person has these days.
Yes I concur that the quick and instant spread around the net for instant fans has certainly increased the chances of people doing stupid things as a dare or to gain their 30 seconds of fame, (15 minutes seems all too long now!).
Have we become so shallow that this is really all we feel we need? Again this ties into the discussion on a few of the other papers, in particular the Instagram discussions on how so much of what is on these channels is fame and attention seeking.
I still maintain that in amongst all of that, there is still a plethora of great material and which is not just self aggrandisement.
What will this look like 10 or 20 years from now, will there be a realignment or two worlds, the vacuous and the rest!!!
Hi Lana,
I have really enjoyed reading your paper and reading the discussion that follows.
Krystal and Michelle make interesting points about pre-internet influencers in magazines and other media and the effects that this had (and still has) on self-esteem and self-image.
As I was reading through the comments (and because I am soooo old), it brought to mind a saying from my childhood: “keeping up with the Joneses”. This was the pre-digital and mass media version of what you are talking about happening in the online space. It made me think of Stepford Wives and WASPS, and how many women aspired to be able to move past the fringes of these societies and become members themselves..
I have to admit that I have not heard of Host Bars and the companionship industry, although again, I recall (through research and reading) that it was very popular through the late 19th and early 20th centuries for older women of means to take on companions, who they would travel with in return for providing care and companionship. It would often be the daughter of a less affluent cousin or distant relation and was often seen by the companion as a way of improving their lives.
Another iteration of this might be the professional escort who, contrary to portrayals in Hollywood fiction, were not (necessarily) prostitutes, but men and women who temporarily fulfilled a companionship role in someones life.
I’m going to put my walker away now and get my warm milk.
Good night.
Hi Vivian,
Thanks so much for your comment – it made me smile! 🙂
The idea of “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a great way to highlight how people in the offline space make upward social comparisons and aspire to be an idealised version of someone else.
People have been making upward social comparisons long before the days of the Internet and social media as you point out. Web 2.0 technologies and SNS like Facebook have just provided a much larger, far-reaching (global) and pervasive stage for people to perform their idealised selves, which means instead of keeping up with their neighbours, friends (offline), fellow community members, etc., people are trying to keep up with a whole host of SNS users/’influencers’ around the world.
OK, I’m going to grab my warm milk now too!
Goodnight 🙂
Hi Lana,
Firstly, great paper! I’m a social media coordinator for a couple of different businesses and over time I’ve noticed that a lot of the tools I generally apply to establish professional branding (through look, voice and overall vibe) are similarly used by social media influencers and celebrities to generate and maintain their projected online personalities. I find it interesting that influencer content (which is essentially posed as someone’s ‘personal photos’) can often be compared to that of a well-marketed business. In many cases, presenting oneself has become a lot less about expressing yourself and more about selling yourself. I’ve found that a lot of these methods of self-promotion are now being adopted more widely into ‘regular’ people’s social media profiles. As more of our everyday life begins to ‘connect’ with the online sphere, I think it will be interesting to see how individuals take to maintaining their online persona in more directly personal/offline situations. In this instance, would it be easier for people to carry through their performance into their honest/offline relationships or would it be better to make their online personality somewhat more true-to-self?
Thanks so much for your comment Jayden! 🙂
I absolutely agree with you – social media ‘influencers’ can be likened to any brand these days trying to build their brand identity and promote themselves. I also agree that in many cases, your online presence has become about selling yourself rather than expressing yourself, especially when it comes to these influencers or others with large followings on social media and where monetisation is concerned.
Regarding your question. I think it differs depending on the SNS user. If it’s a brand identity someone is trying to convey, as in the case of influencers as we’re discussing, it would make sense that their identity in the online space probably differs quite a bit to their offline personality, to make their ‘brand’ seem more appealing and exciting. Similar to how celebrities (film stars, musicians, etc) would typically have a persona in the public/Hollywood sphere that differs from their personalities and how they behave in their personal lives. I’d guess that in these cases, especially if they’ve been in the business a while, they would be able to switch between online and offline personas without needing their two identities to merge.
What do you think?