Social media has become a staple in the lives of individuals around the world. According to Facebook, they have 1.09 billion active users on their site. That could be construed as 1.09 billion people projecting their identity, to a potential 1.09 billion people, daily. When we post on sites such as Facebook, we are presenting to the world a glimpse of who we are, but the question is, who is watching? This seems to be a burning dilemma facing many professionals and would-be professionals around the world. How much of myself do I include in my online persona?
In essence, social media has created a venue for us to have multiple selves. Three constructs: the authentic self, the professional self, and the line that separates the two. In the beginning, our social media accounts are built in our own image, but over time social media can become an outlet to express who or what we want to be, with very little intrusion into our real-world selves. One could ascertain that many of the thoughts shared on social media, today, are thoughts that would have been internalized in the past due to the lack of public forum to make them external. Are those internalized thoughts part of our identity? No, they are not, not until they become something public that we can be identified by.
Posting these thoughts on Facebook is a documented identifier of who you are—your internalized thoughts have now become external, and could now be considered a cause to an effect. The person we identify with online could have an effect on the person we are perceived to be in the real world. The question is where do we draw the line? How much of your identity are you willing to internalize to fit the status quo? Where is your fundamental line to which you will sacrifice yourself for financial gain? Is it worth it?
In my opinion, one should always be conscious of what is posted to their social media accounts and how it may be perceived by anyone that should happen to view them. However, I also feel that as individuals we should create an online identity that is representative of whom we really are, and that we each create our own unique brand, rather than a generic version of the status quo. If there is honesty and consistency in our online selves, I think that any employer would appreciate it.
This idea of multiple selves may sound like some form of psychological disorder, but it is not; these constructs that I am talking about begin at a very young age—right about the time we head off to school for the very first time. Before we have social interaction outside of the comfort and safety of our parents home, we only really have one self. It is when we start to live a life outside of our home environment that we are presented a whole new dynamic. We begin to shape ourselves in the eyes of other children, teachers, and cafeteria workers, but we still have to balance our authentic self that we have known for six years with this new found self we are creating in school—there is the line, where do we draw it?
Fast forward to adulthood. We have gone through school, grown up and we have created this authentic self throughout our formative years. Now, though, we have new construct that we need to worry about called the professional self. Do we throw away everything that makes us authentic in order to fit the mold that professionals are cut from? No, absolutely not, but here comes that line again.
I say quit worrying about the authentic and professional self and worry about the line that separates the two. The driving factor behind this opinion of mine has nothing more to it than me not wanting a job. A job, in my opinion is clocking in and out, and sacrificing my precious time in order to pay bills—to me it is like standing in line and I hate lines. I want to earn a living doing something that I love, something meaningful, and for someone who has the same values as I do. The only real way to accomplish this is not by separating the two, but combining them.
