If you’re familiar with the Gaines Family of HGTV ‘Fixer Upper’ (my obsession), you’ll know that what once was a relatively low-key Texas family, is now a couple with their own empire.
The couple has two books to their name, a home goods line with Target, a successful show, and storefronts in Waco, Texas, where people from across the country come to get a glimpse of the design brilliance that is Chip and Joanna Gaines.
And, of course, they have a social media following with not only their personal accounts, but the accounts of their home design store, bakery, restaurant, and silos (if you know what I mean, you know what I mean).
I am baffled at how an unassuming couple from Texas, simply living out their own passion for creating homes, has been able to create a cult-following that has enabled a home design empire. I find the meeting of traditional fame (via television) with, let us say, millennial fame (via social media) utterly fascinating.
I am again impressed, but perhaps not shocked, by the fact that social media has yet again magnified two public figures into something of a new caliber.
The role that social media has played in creating my own personal identity with a public identity has been one of contradictions and confusion. (Read: "you don’t look like you do in pictures"). (Read: ...thank you?). I always hear, and tell people, to think about what their parents would say if they saw something you shared on Instagram or Facebook, when it comes to posting photos, statuses, comments, and articles.
Needless to say, I am intrigued to see how I will feel about my Odyssey articles in 10 years because, once you publish something, it’s never going away. Will I look back in horror of my writing technique, perspectives, or overall maturity? Perhaps. But, even if you delete it, it’s out there. Scary, and true.
This is advice to live by when it comes to material relating to drinking, partying, crass or vulgar language, etc. As a 20-year-old, this seems obvious to me now. This is no longer my concern. What I’ve struggled with, is finding the line between my private and public self when it comes to social media.
As a female college student, I have heard many a time about the obsession with your ‘gram aesthetic. It’s a valid thought, though people mock it. What we deem as ‘private’ is perhaps quite public. This aesthetic is the notion that your overall feed should have a certain vibe to it.
This means you only take photos a certain way, edit them a certain way, have an overarching color scheme, or an overall feeling you are trying to convey via your photos. I have been told in the past that my Instagram does not have an aesthetic, which is an insult or compliment depending on your view it. I have a belief that people who can achieve this aesthetic Instagram probably have a calling in media production, graphic design, or marketing because this is a feat of both artistic and branding capabilities.
But that’s just it - do I have to brand myself on something that is supposedly private? Can social media really convey the nuances of who I am as a person? Or perhaps just the facade I’d like to demonstrate?
The line of public and private in social media is developing into territory that is murky, for me. I have a belief that social media is inherently public, no matter how many privacy settings you enable. Masses of people are viewing, consuming, and hypothetically reproducing your social media if we take into consideration the notorious screenshot.
No matter how private we may want to be about our lives, people can still stalk your 2009 family vacation to Florida. Employers will still have their sneaky ways of finding that picture of you at a bar when you were 20, not 21. It’s the risk we take when we sign up for this stuff, and when we post something because we look good or it makes us look fun or, because, it goes with our aesthetic.
The obsession with the ‘Gram is something I’ve fed into, and something I’ve fed into hard at times. I’ve deleted a picture because it didn’t get enough likes. I’m ashamed to admit this fact but I’m just trying to say I’m not coming from a place of high ground. Social media plagues us all, in different ways.
I’m here to say, however, that I’ve come to a realization in the past year. However much we think social media is something we possess for others to view, it is ultimately for us. A reflection of us. Its existence is contingent upon our existence and our agreement to use it. (Excluding instances of Catfishing which is just a whole other ballpark I am not going into).
If you have your social media pages public and strategically post from your well-thought-out plan to ascend in the social media world as a fashion blogger or lifestyle influencer, then go you! Social media is an industry and platform for self-promotion nowadays.
But it is also that platform upon which your mom posts photos of you from your first high school dance to keep you humble. Everything comes in twos - salty and sweet, happy and sad, feeling like you have a bomb Instagram and then seeing photos of yourself from eighth grade on Facebook.
There is more to a person than their social media. It sounds redundant and superficial and shallow, but it’s true. I think we lose sight of that when we’re in the middle of it. Social media builds business empires, new relationships, and new personas. It has a lot of power when you give it. It can be super complicated and all-consuming.
I don’t have an argument, because the jury is still out, and will continue to be. But. Don’t post something dumb, but post stuff you like, because ultimately it’s for you, by virtue of you. And, I think you’re way cooler than you feed. I hope you think so too.
