My Relevance in Social Media

Life is tough as a young adult placed in a social setting; further worsening the situation, digitize said social setting and you have a world made up of multiple social media platforms where people from all over the world can interact. As a young adult and a user of five different social media platforms, I can say with full confidence that the "self" I portray on each website is different but also similar in some ways. 

In the article "The Self in Selfie: Identity in the Age of Social Media," the author explains how social media users portray themselves differently than they do in real life. Take a celebrity, Kim Kardashian, as an example and look at how she portrays her life on Instagram-- in every photo, everyone is always posed perfectly, their skin is always smooth with no stretch or wrinkle, and even when she is "bare-faced," she still looks perfect. 

A contrasting example of this idea is my personal Twitter account. Although two completely different platforms of social media, my Twitter account contrasts with Kim Kardashian's Instagram. My tweets are more honest and tend to be stream of consciousness that fit within a certain sarcastic narrative. In person I am quiet and I don't share my opinions unless I feel comfortable to do so. On Twitter, I share my opinions freely with my followers as well as anything that is relevant to social media culture. This starkly contrasts with Kim K's use of her social media because she filters what her followers take in while I tweet statements that directly reflect my thoughts.