Our Virtual Self

In my last couple of blog posts I discussed how aspects of our lives have been turned into a virtual reality. This time I am going to argue that we have created a complete virtual second self. There are multiple ways that we have constructed our virtual selves, but usually the one way we do so is by enhancing qualities we wish we had.

For example, many people tend to hold in their innermost thoughts out of courtesy or shyness. But when they have an outlet to express those thoughts they have free rein. Christopher Poole (4Chan) created such an outlet in which users have complete anonymity. This allows for people who tend to be more shy, to be able to freely express their thoughts.  Even Facebook or LinkedIn profiles enhance our qualities that we want people to see. Facebook we can show pictures of our life that make us seem more exciting, post status updates that might make us seem more humorous, or have several hundred “friends” that make us seem more popular. LinkedIn profiles allow us to show off our professionalism, work experience, and our finer qualities.

Amber Case makes the argument that we all have a second life, and that aside from maintaining it we all go through an adolescent period. We go through the experience of first learning technology and social media and we make mistakes as adolescents. Then after going through those experiences we learn from our mistakes, just as we did when we were actual adolescents.  

Nearly everyone who has a social media profile has a second life. What they portray online is a different than their actual life because they’re enhancing the qualities they wish they have, or qualities they like most about themselves. As a personal example, I wish I led a more exciting life. I tend to enjoy being at home, and have a very small circle of friends. But several of my albums show me being out at fun events like Bark in the Park, or going to Columbus or other cities. Though I know I don’t lead that exciting of a life, I do try to portray otherwise on social media.

Social media has allowed everyone to expand aspects of their physical realities into virtual realities (such as friendships, photo albums, or creative ideas). Social media also allows us to create an entire virtual reality of our lives, by having the ability to create a second or virtual self.

This has many pros and cons. The pros of having a virtual life is we can connect to any person at any time, and we can create our ideal self. I created my ideal self by showing the more exciting version of my actual life.  Cons though include a clouded version of our real self, and lack of awareness of our physical reality. Sometimes when we get so wrapped up in our virtual lives, thinking about the perfect status update or which pictures to upload, we tend to forget that actual life we’re living. Amber Case explained that living in a virtual world we forget to reflect and appreciate our real-life experiences.

Social media and technology have so many abilities, but having that balance between a virtual world and a physical reality is essential.