Identity and Other Existential Crises
- Joanne Sally Mero
- Oct 24, 2017
- 2 min read
World wide web? World wide what now?
As we dive deeper into studying personal media, I can't help but catch myself feeling suddenly overwhelmed and questioning everything. No, not in the way a college course (or the entire premise of rhetoric and media) is meant to make one question things. Prior to this class, I hardly questioned my use of media and technology. While I have gotten more careful of my choice of words and content online, I haven't changed much. I'm still the open book I've always been. In that, writing weekly blog posts, comments, and tweets wasn't incredibly difficult for me. Well, not until I started actually thinking about it. "It" being everything, really.
This week in class we began our new segment of defining our identity in interpersonal media. That was all fine until, of course, I began to analyze my own blog and the way I speak online in comparison to how I speak face-to-face. From there, I began to wonder about how I portray myself and how that reflects the "real me." What even is the "real me?"
*cue existential crisis*
What is considered real?
Why do I have a different voice in a different medium?
Does this mean I'm not being my true self?
Who even is my true self??
I don't believe I have different personalities simply because I have a different voice across my social media. In no way does writing this post signify a sudden self revelation, but more to gather thoughts-- my own and of my peers.
In the comments below, feel free to write about your own experiences with your identity online and offline. Do you find you have a different voice on, for example, FaceBook versus Instagram? How is that different from how you communicate face-to-face, on the phone, or through text message? Or through mandatory comments on your classmate's required blog post?
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