Social media has proven to be a powerful tool for self-representation in the modern world, especially among younger generations. Many social media platforms boast their ability for users to create original, personal sites. I will specifically be examining Instagram as it is debatably one of, if not the, most popular social media sites today. Instagram is centralized around photographs with users only allowed to post minimal captions in accompany. Other users can then respond to photos with comments. An Instagram account can be public or private but it is becoming increasingly popular to have public accounts that seek to emulate a certain aesthetic among young users. The photos that are posted are obviously intended for a similar audience to that of the poster. This is made apparent by hashtags written in acronyms that only a select audience would be able to decipher. The intended audiences, presumably consisting of teens, further work to encourage the popularity of these sort of ‘master’ aesthetics as the posts that normally receive the most likes are the ones that fall into pre-approved social norms. Popular aesthetics are normally consisting of simplistic images with neutral colour pallets, and vaguely sexualized photos of the ‘author’ of the account. The popularity of these themes have sparked through avid social media users that have quickly rose to fame such as Alexis Ren. A California-born model, the 19 year-old gained a very large following with the help of her public Instagram account. She works to market herself with the use of the site. Many teens, especially girls, have recently begun to try to emulate her lifestyle and those of others who are similar to her. This is a very interesting phenomenon as users actively work to craft an ideal picture of their lives that has been deemed acceptable for public reception. Teens will often stage photographs in order to exercise control over their own public image. Therefore, if social media sites are going to be thought of as autobiographical forms, should the issue of authenticity be brought into question? It is debatable because on one hand the voice behind the feeds are often solely that of the author’s, and therefore unquestionable as to their authenticity, but on the other hand, usually these voices don’t originate from within the author, instead forming as products of larger societal pressures, which influence the teens to present themselves in a certain way deviant from who they actually are. A recent trend has seen the creation of a“spam” or a “second” personal account where users show their real selves aside from their main accounts. They can be who they want to be without running the risk of ruining their public persona. In her article “The Social Media Effect: Are You Really Who You Portray Online?”, Kay Green from the Huffington Post argues that “our online selves represent our ideals and eliminate many of our other real components”. Green goes on to explain that many use social media as an “esteem booster” and as a result end up with an “inflated sense of who they really are”. Because of their falsification of self, social media can prove harmful to teens who are often, already struggling with discovering their identity. In my previous post, “Social Media and the Selfie: A Healthy and Valid Form of Self-Representation?”, I mentioned social media feeds as a sort of “running autobiography”. I would like to further examine this idea. Social media sites are always in constant flux, and have the ability to be altered relatively easily. Personal sites are usually vaguely representative of the author’s life experiences at the moment they occur, as pictures are normally posted relatively recent to when they were taken. In contrast to a ‘traditional’ autobiography, the sites are much more accessible to the general public, and are never officially published and made permanent, therefore, they seem to possess the ability to be much more representative of the users personal experience. If somehow, the issue of authenticity can be mediated with the idea of social media as a form of autobiography, these platforms potentially have the capacity to be very valuable tools in the field of life-narratives.

Works Cited

Green, R. Kay. “The Social Media Effect: Are You Really Who You Portray Online?” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Aug. 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/r-kay-green/the-social-media-effect-a_b_3721029.html.

Ren, Alexis. “ALEXIS REN (@Alexisren) • Instagram photos and videos.” Instagram, www.instagram.com/alexisren/.

Spencer, Rebecca. “Social Media and The Selfie: A Healthy and Valid Form of Self-Representation?” Rebecca Spencer ASTU blog, blogs.ubc.ca/rebeccaspencerastu/2017/09/21/social-media-and-the-selfie-a-healthy-and-valid-form-of-self-representation/.