Peter Kitsamba Kitsamba 1
Lisa Mott
English 100
8 September 2014 Self-Identity In the article, “I Tweet Therefore I Am”, by Peggy Oreinstein, she writes that people have come to express their daily lives with a tacit referendum or an expressed idea decided by popular vote of “what they believe themselves to be” (41). She believes that people should tweet what they want based on themselves and not what their followers want. Orenstein also points out that people have made it a lifestyle to remain “on” at all times, accepting that what they post is instigated by their peers and the empathy that there connected to everyone at the same time. We’ve come to assume that everything we post has meaning because our peers will like or retweet it. The addiction that twitter creates makes it impossible to stop because every moment can seem to be a tweet moment. Though Twitter and other social networks are detrimental to the individuality of all its users, they are also advantageous in other areas. Uncontrollable addiction, superficial users and the empathy to stay connected have led to removal of self-identity from people. I personally don’t have a twitter account for no other reason other than I’ve just never bothered to try it. I’ve never given into the curiosity of what I’m missing out because social networks to me are nothing but another way to pass time. Though I don’t use them to update my every move for the world to see doesn’t mean I don’t scroll through feeds mindlessly gazing at what others are doing. Twitter and other social networks have stripped individuality from the way we interact and perceive our actions in our daily lives.
Many of my friends have become so addicted that even when you’re hanging out with them, they are prone to check or even post something. Updating their every move, every food their going to eat, every moment that seems perfect they post. This sense that every interaction is a “quintessential moment” (41), causes an addiction “to the Seinfeldian absurdities of life” (41) or just everyday pointless matters of life. Orenstein was relaxing with her daughter and clashed between her urge to give in and tweet or rather enjoy the moment at hand. She gave into her split conscious and tweeted about her moment because there is a thrill to each post. Her individuality was split between realities because she couldn’t resist not posting about what she was doing. Slowly her identity is being changed because now her brain is thinking of how others will look to it and at this point she’s hooked” (42).
When tweeting we are left to question whether or not it was good. I for one don’t update anything but when I do I take time to think of how funny it will sound for my audience, unlike Orenstein who’s much more addicted only thinks of her posts as an “art”. Are we really tweeting for ourselves or for our audience? The appreciation we get drives us to think that our followers admire all that we post, so why deprive them. We live in a metaphorically acting world because “we act out a role and adapt it based on the relationship and context at hand” (42). Even with face to face interaction we are constantly thinking our how we can change our image to better suit the other person. We are creating ourselves anew in this fantasy but also creating “something for others consumption” (9). So we are left to dream and create an even better post than the last, exaggerating as much as possible to please our audience. Twitter has given us the tools to take this further and exaggerate things like “eating in bed, flossing, reading a book in the tub” (42). It has changed the lines of what consider sharable information and “authentic and contrived self” (42). You can argue whether or not you tweet for yourself but in the end, your identity is shaped by your followers because we as people love the attention and will do anything as little as lying to retain it.
This connection to the world and our peers leaves us feeling very compassionate and lucky to have our followers. We feel complete as if empathetic towards the relationships built with others through social media, but unsure of what they truly feel back towards you. This unsureness drives many mad and leads to them creating a perfect image online where they feel loved noticed by others