2-2 Journal Assignment: My Online and Offline Self
Today, social media is a staple that has grown quickly overtime making Twitter, Facebook and Instagram household names. It has created new avenues for traditional marketing practices and has brought more revenue to businesses alike. It is very interesting to see how social media is used both on a larger scale like in a business and how it is used in our personal lives. I think that social media allows the opportunity for someone to possibly express themselves more than they would in person or allow them to connect with others in the online social setting when in person they perhaps might be a complete introvert. For some, it’s almost as if social media opens a buried imagination that doesn’t get tapped into on the regular.
This article brings up great points when comparing online and offline identities. The externalist version of identity where ones’ identity is compiled of external factors rather than how that person thinks plays a huge role on what is portrayed online by them. Giving the example of the anonymous Facebook profile belonging to the Thai man named “Burn Out” shows how far deep external influences can affect how we chose to portray our online identity. Due to freedom of speech being limited and a law put in place against critizing the King, of course online users want to stay unknown. Yet, I think the article made that point to say we still see the same behavior here in the United States or anywhere else where there is freedom of speech. Burn Out’s online persona never makes a connection with his offline identity, keeping separate. Here he has made it a must to protect his privacy by using this Facebook profile as a creative outlet to express his thoughts verses showing who he really is on a personal level.
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