Identity of social network users Can imagine it as a triangle, the vertices of which are different “I”. The first is related to how we see ourselves, the second is how we show ourselves on the Internet, and the third is how other users imagine us. All three of these selves are interconnected and form a unique, dynamic personality. If we understand how this structure works, we can better understand ourselves and our place in the world and navigate the digital space more effectively.
1. The represented self
We create our sense of who we are through our experiences and interactions with other people and the world around us. This is how we understand what we like (reading, cooking, hiking), what personal qualities we have (smart, funny, sociable), what relationships are important to us at home and at work, what makes up our social identity (profession, political views , religious affiliation). All this can be called the represented “I”. In it, our personality appears as we ourselves see it.
The imagined “I” appears in its most elementary form around the end of the second year of life, when the child begins to recognize his reflection in the mirror. As we continue to learn about the world around us, which in turn shapes our behavior and experiences, our perception of our own personality becomes richer and more complex.
2. Registered self
When we had social networks, we began to share our views, life experiences and everything that we thought might be interesting and useful to others. We also repost, like or comment on other people’s posts. We do all of this primarily to express ourselves and feel connected to other people. In addition, we can publish posts to convince someone of something, to inform someone about something, to receive advice or sympathy.
Thus, our personality has a digital “extension”, which can be designated as a registered “I”. It is the image we use to present ourselves in the public sphere of social media. The registered self is the filtered imagined self that most often reflects how we would like to be perceived by others. That’s why we choose what we share so carefully. For example, we publish more positive and less negative content, more important and less trivial, more interesting and less boring. We also try to make sure our posts are original, show our personality, and motivate other people.
What experiences we share and how we do them begin to shape over time how we remember and tell the story of our lives. At the same time, the registered “I” changes as we change the content of our social networks, responding to audience feedback. We keep posting similar content if our posts get a lot of likes and comments, and move on to something else if they don’t get a reaction. When we frequently post stories in real time and receive instant feedback, we feel a constant connection with other people, no matter how fleeting that feeling may be.
3. The Assumed Self
If we don’t have detailed personal information on our profile, our audience will have a hard time understanding who we really are from our own posts and interactions with other people’s content on social media.
In other words, other users do not have direct access to our imagined self. All they see is the registered self that comes through our online activities. And here another version of our personality appears – the supposed “I”. This is the impression that our audience has of us based on what we post and how they interact with our posts.
Because our posts often provide fragmentary information about what we do and what we think, with no apparent logical connection between them, other users have to connect the dots themselves to understand who we are. As a result, inconsistencies can arise between how we see ourselves and how others see us. For example, from the outside we may not appear as outgoing or confident as we think we are.
Every time we publish different content – we post photos, videos, links, this conveys more information and allows the audience to paint a more accurate portrait of us. Therefore, the supposed “I” is constantly updated depending on how our communication with other users develops. They can also change the way they think about us, which in turn changes how we express ourselves online and how we see ourselves in life.
Shed light on different aspects of personality 🧐