3. Self-presentation and Self-image
3.1 What does your Instagram profile say about you?
Our profiles on platforms like Instagram and others can reveal a lot about us. How do we present ourselves? Which aspects of our lives do we share? Athletic achievements, physical images, or creative projects, so-called quality time with family and friends? All these can provide clues about what is important to us and how we wish to be perceived. Is our hobby important to us? Do we want to be seen as a tennis player or as a popular friend among many? Do we share photos from parties with friends, or from the last beach day together? Do we want to be perceived as attractive? How heavily do you edit your photos? Or do you post snapshots that are funny and simply show us and others that life is enjoyable? Also, how often do you post? Do you post at all? Or do you prefer not to share things from your life with many people and keep it private? Or do you fear feedback, that everyone can see it, and therefore do not post or certain things? And is your profile private or public? Do you simply upload whatever comes to mind, or is your profile curated and planned? Have you ever consciously thought about why or why not you design your profile this way and how much effort you put into it? Your decisions about this can give deeper insights into your values, desires, and self-perception. They can reveal what truly matters to you, how you see yourself, and how you wish to be seen by others.
Question for you: Take a scroll through your profile. If you pretend it belongs to a stranger, what would you think about the person? What does the profile say about this person? Feel free to use the questions from the above paragraph as a guide for this question (how you seemingly want to be seen by others).
How do you present yourself and why do you do it that way? What is important to you? Can you think of something you explicitly don't share even though it plays a big role in your life, and if so, why not? Feel free to use the question from the above paragraph as a guide for this question (how you see yourself and what is important to you).
To break down self-presentation into one image: What does your WhatsApp profile picture look like? If you pretend it's a stranger's profile picture, what would you think? And what message do you want to convey with it?
To be on dating apps, what (type of) photos have you selected? Selfies, professional photos, photos with friends, activities. Even the content and style of your profile text can say a lot about your interests, humor, and values. How do you want to be perceived and does your representation align with that?
All in all, do you feel like the person you present on social media?
Another question: If you now consciously think about how you want others to perceive you, how would you then design your profile and posts? Would you do it differently or would it still look the same?
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Swipe Right for Self-Discovery: Social Media as a Guide to Self-Finding
Non-FictionIn an era where discussions about the potential risks and negative impacts of social media are ubiquitous, there arises the necessity to change the paradigm and take a more nuanced view of these platforms. It is often emphasized that social media ai...
