The person I interviewed is my oldest brother Collins, and he is 28 years old.
1. What social media platforms and apps do you use now and in the past?
In the early 2000’s, I used Hi-5, Myspace ,aim messenger, yahoo messenger, and right now I just mainly use Facebook, Instagram and Gmail.
2. Do you use your real name(s)? Have you ever used aliases or created fake accounts? Why?
I have used aliases or nicknames on some of my accounts to protect my real name, for platforms like hi 5, Myspace, and Instagram and I really only use my real name for my Facebook account.
3. What different personas do you construct in each of these platforms and how do they relate to aspects of your experiences in life?
I don’t have any other personas other than my genuine self, so what you see on my accounts is who I genuinely am.
4. Do the digital personas they construct help them cope with the problems they face or do they create new problems? In what ways?
He doesn’t need to construct a persona, because he is comfortable being himself.
Source Source
Like a lot of young adults today, Collins have maintained a lot of social accounts, instant messaging accounts. Turkle talks about it in “Identity in the Age of the Internet” “There are many others. On the Internet, Internet Relay Chat (commonly known as IRC) is another widely used conversational forum in which any user can open a channel and attract guests to it, all of whom speak to each other as if in the same room.”(Turkle 14) Even though he was referring to MUD user, it still applies to instant messenger apps like AIM and yahoo messenger, where you can chat with friends and family either individually or in groups on chat rooms.
Through the different apps, we like or follow the things we can relate to or whatever we find interesting “We correspond with each other. through electronic mail and contribute to electronic bulletin boards and mailing lists; we join interest groups whose participants include people from all over the world”(Turkle 148) “Aspect of The Self” We use the internet as an outlet and a communication board, we use Facebook to display our thoughts and images and Instagram as our daily gallery and anyone can like or comment on the posts.
How many social accounts have you have in your entire life?
Do you feel like it is necessary to take on a different persona(s) when you get online?Why?
Hi, to answer question # 1. I think I can relate to your brother because I used to have Myspace. Now, I don’t have Facebook. I only have a few social media accounts and only one of them has my real name which is about my job. Like your brother, I am genuine therefore I prefer to meet genuine people as well. It can be at a bar or at social events, a face-to-face kind of thing.
Great post.
Nice blog. I think, perhaps it is necessary to have different persona in different social media sites. One good example I can give you is the use of LinkedIn and Snapchat. Mostly, everyone would agree that most of their post on snapchat of different activities would never be posted on LinkedIn. I guess, you can call it not written rules of social media. Everyone knows facebook is for family posts and your behave self, instagram is the i am “cool” site and snapchat is more of the i am “silly” site.
Hello. Thank you for your blog and for the comments guys.
For question one I think I have 6 social media accounts. But from these I use only Facebook and Instagram. I don’t really use the rest anymore. (LinkedIn, Twitter, VK.RU, OK.RU) I use my nickname as a first name on Facebook and I also use the last name whereas on Instagram it’s only my full name without the last name.
As for question number two, I totally agree g.jorge’s comment above. I think you want it or not, you’ll still have different personas. Different social medias require different personas. I’m not saying that these will be separate personas and different people. These little different personas will be part of your big persona. You are still you on Instagram and on LinkedIn but you try to show different sides of you, different personas. You might be more free and fun on Instagram and more serious and professional on LinkedIn.
I have four different social media platforms that I used on a daily basis, and like your brother Collins, I try to be my genuine self. I don’t feel the need to construct a different persona, but I am also aware of the social construct of each platform. For instance, I wouldn’t post the same pictures on Instagram and on LinkedIn. So although it’s different, I am still being authentic.