To say that social media influences our identity is a dramatic understatement. Humans, being social creatures, crave social interaction and validation from others. Certainly these interactions start rather limited, but as we grow & mature and expand our social circles we start to determine who we are through both an additive and subtractive look at the people around us, is it any wonder that with the sheer massive amount of potential social connection that the internet & social media allows that it would shape our sense of self?
There's a long standing theory from 2004, which I would argue has been thoroughly debunked in the intervening years, that asserts "normal, well-adjusted people may display psychopathic or antisocial behaviors when given both anonymity and a captive audience on the Internet." (Caldwell, 2013). Though the comic by Penny Arcade is perhaps the most widely known version of this theory, as Caldwell notes the theory was first written about by psychologist John Suler. Of course, you really only have to go look at most Facebook or Nextdoor, or CBC comment sections, posts to see that even where social media platforms have endeavoured to sidestep the antisocial behaviour theorised by Dr. Suler by doing away with anonymity the antisocial behaviour remains. People will now happily post, with their full government names, some of the worst and most bigoted statements you have ever seen. And they will even be celebrated for it in their own circles, and be boosted by algorithms, in order to spread their opinions even further. Facebook and the social media empire under Mark Zuckerberg prioritises your attention and engagement far more than they care about accuracy or user safety on their platform, going so far as to use their visibility algorithms to surface posts to user feeds that would make them angry or otherwise emotionally charged to encourage them to stay and engage with the platform more (Merrill & Oremus, 2021). A similar phenomenon takes place with 'fake news' as people employ dis/mis-information to get under our skin and inspire us to refute the lies and thus engage with the content more, or to agree with the clearly smart and good writer who just happens to confirm all my closely held beliefs. There has been a similar practice in politics of late, with clearly manufactured culture war talking points and news programs that nonetheless get attention. Suffice to say, I think the advent of social media broke some of our brains ability to interact with the wider culture in a healthy way and we have yet to wrangle our way free of the mental damage.
The flip side of this, I think, is the types of social media that exist in games & play. Code describes the nature of the performer-audience dialectic and how important it is to bear in mind that "‘audience’ members need to be aware that people may be presenting a Self that may only be a small part of the actual nominal identity of the ‘performer’" (2012). While this might result from various forms of disclosure, forum signatures or profile pages are some ways this was handled in the past, it is very clear when I spend time with my friends or others in online virtual spaces that I am not actually an undead wizard making fun of the snooty lizard with my dwarven friend that these are avatars and characters that allow us to experiment with different facets of identity. The various subcultures that have developed through online play in the many years since the employees at Blizzard first powered on the World of Warcraft servers and reinvented what it meant to exist together in a virtual space. Though she refers more to politics and protests, Milan's point on the central nature of performance as an aspect of social media can be seen in how people behave and interact in these online social spaces (2015). Marriages, funerals, and other ceremonies have taken place in virtual worlds; the social links made through online connections are no less real than ones made in person, but the ability to perform different aspects of identity is unparalleled in the virtual space. Game spaces have allowed various subcultures the freedom to form and grow without being bound by physical limitations, and much can be learned about how to take part in a healthy and successful social media space from the way that virtual worlds can help foster positivity and creativity.
References
Caldwell, D. (2022, November 3). Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Know Your Meme. Retrieved February 6, 2023, from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory
Code, J. (2012). Agency and Identity in Social Media. Digital Identity and Social Media, 37–57. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1915-9.ch004
Merrill, J. B., & Oremus, W. (2021, October 26). Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/
Milan, S. (2015). When Algorithms Shape Collective Action: Social Media and the Dynamics of Cloud Protesting. Social Media + Society, 1(2), 205630511562248. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115622481
@wuooods. (2020, April 19). Hello my name is Firstname Bunchofnumbers and i have some incredibly shitty opinions. Twitter.com. Retrieved February 6, 2023, from https://twitter.com/wuooods/status/1252051656344317953?lang=en
