Assignment #1: Me and My Selfie

            I have so much homework to do, I should really get started, I have a test next week, and I should really start studying for it too… I should really get started on this essay, but first; let me take a selfie (cue the Chainsmokers). Selfie, as defined by the oxford dictionary is a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media. This is a pretty accurate definition that conforms well with my own definition of what a selfie is. A selfie is in the end just a picture, but what specifically distinguishes a selfie from a regular photo is in my opinion, as the word suggest, selfies focuses on the self, particularly the face. Most, if not all selfies, would include the face of the person that took it. I think that this is important to point out because of what I think the purposes of selfies are. When we look for emotions in others, the first thing that we do would be to look at the person face. Facial expressions are the most common way to figure out someone’s emotions and that is precisely what I think selfies are for, to express one emotions. For example, just last week during the snowstorm, I had to go to work while all my friends got to stay at home and sleep, there, I just had to take a selfie and upload it on social media to express my misery.                                                This is exactly what social media is, just a platform for people to share information, usually about themselves, to others. I do enjoy learning more about others as well as sharing information about myself however; I do not see myself as someone who is active on social media. Do not get me wrong though, I enjoy social media as much as the next person it is just that I do not share as much information about myself on social media as others. It is not that I find something wrong with social media which is why I have hardly any information on social media, it is just because of the type of person I am. I see myself as sort of a private person and I only like sharing information with close friends and family. Even when there are times when I do actually post something on social media, it would be seen only by close friends and family. For example, the selfie I took during the snowstorm was uploaded onto Snap Chat, where I only added close friends and family, instead of Facebook. I do not need the whole world to know me, just close friends and family are enough. Heck, I have not even updated my Facebook profile since 2012.                                                                                                                                                                   Although I am not active on social media that does not mean that I do not see the importance of it. For one thing, it is important enough to have a college level class on it right? I think social media is important because of how much our world today revolves around it and how it affects us. Business wise, it is a very great thing as it has really changed the way companies market their products. Many companies have even stopped using traditional marketing techniques and have switch to just purely social media marketing, saving them lots of money. Business aside, social media also helps us to stay connected with people a lot easier. You can find friends that you have not seen in ages and reconnect through social media. When you want to show that you care for someone but do not have time to comment, you can just like their post instead. Social media has many advantages but every good thing has bad things as well.                   One problem would be that people are getting too addicted to social media. They are constantly on it all the time and cannot stop. Another problem would be the expectations that social media creates onto people in regards to your life. Society as a whole always has the notion that you have to be happy all the time, and social media is no exception to this. People become almost pressured to keep posting happy content onto social media just to show everyone that you are happy even though you are not. Social media might pressure people into not expressing their true emotions and this creates a lot of problems for both your mental and physical health. People begin to create what you would call an online identity that might be contrary to their real life identity. But is a person’s online identity really that different from their real identity?             Because I am not very active on social media, I do not think that my online identity is really any different than my real life nor does it affect it in anyway. In fact, I also do not think that anyone’s online identity is different from their real life identity. This statement may be weird with so many catfishing (luring someone into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona) cases these days and the cases I mentioned before, but I think that even these cases are a reflection of one’s true self. Like I said before, social media is just a platform for people to share information, usually about themselves, to others. Information that you willingly choose to share, whether they are real or fake, evoke feelings in people whom you share that information with. This is pretty much for anything, not just what you do online. For example, everything that I have written in this essay is information about me that I willingly convey, my words are my selfie and the paper is my platform. What I have written up until now and for the rest of the essay, whether it is fake or real, would still show who I am to you, the reader. If what I wrote is indeed, fake, it would probably tell you that I am someone who would write anything just to fill up the page requirements for this essay to get a good grade, and if what I wrote is real it would tell you what my views on social media are. This is no different from what you choose to post online. Everything you choose to share about yourself online, reveals a little bit about yourself in real life. If you post a happy picture, you can be genuinely happy in real life, at the same time if you post a happy picture but are not happy, it means that you want to be happy in real life. This is why I do not think that anyone’s online identity is really that different from their real life identity. A tree can spur numerous branches but they all lead to the root. Your online identity is just one of your many branches that lead down to your roots, your true character, and the real you. Now, you may still be wondering if everything I wrote is real or for the lack of a better word, bullshit, but like I said before, I am a private person so I will just keep that to myself.