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{1.2a1} social media requires fragmentation and decontextualization of our identities
topics: [[identity]]
2025-01-25 Updated title… I feel like this is more referring to the doubling / partitioning discussed in Doppelganger; it’s less that we’re being taken out of context and more that social media requires us to fragment our identities…
Randomly had this thought when thinking about I want to engage online. Authenticity™️ on the web is a myth. It’s impossible to “be yourself” online because the very nature of social media is to make you consumable; they want people to be interested in your posts so they’re on the platform longer so they can see more ads, etc. etc. etc.
We create personas that best match the platform we’re on. People who are active in fandoms on Tumblr probably aren’t talking about that on Instagram. People on EDTWT don’t share body checks on Facebook.
We curate the parts of ourselves we want made public. It’s common online, especially among women, to remind each other not to compare your life to other people’s “highlight reel” on socials, but that’s still what most people use it to show. gender performance on social media
It is impossible to recreate the complexities of ourselves in a preestablished format. Social media pre-defines your communication and requires you to fit within the confines of the platform.
Combining all three of those factors show why it’s so easy to find yourself in a {1.2a2} context collapse online: these siloed, concocted versions of ourselves don’t include the humanity and discernment necessary to exist with others online — which is probably why we feel like 2023-07-05-12-45 we should all know less about each other.