My online social media identity
From online-only run brands to catfishing, the internet is a place you can create, foster and grow your own personal identity, an issue with this, however, is everyone’s ability to see and interact with that identity. C. Feiseler, MM and GR say that “the pervasiveness of social media within our lives and daily practices has contributed to a progressively
thinner and blurrier distinction between personal and professional spaces” (Feiseler, Meckel, Ranzini, 2015). The lines between one’s personal life and online persona are becoming increasingly blurred in the modern age and with everyone from friends to potential employers with access to this persona, it’s important to remember how to manage a juggling act in your identity creation, to remain balanced between owning your online space and not being passed up for employment, promotion or worse yet, tarnishing your reputation.
I believe that in the modern age this is an important factor to our everyday lives, with very few people not interacting online it’s important to know that whatever parts of your life or opinion you allow to flow through to your online image will be held to you for accountability sake and as such it’s important to remember that a simple post, tweet, image or video clip is as good as standing on a stage and yelling it at everyone you can, engraving your voice and words into the minds of all those who give the time to listen and as in life so goes the same online, once said it can’t be unsaid.
It’s because of these intricacies of the online persona that I have chosen to keep my online identity inside the framework of a professional whilst also making efforts to make it a personal space in which I can still express an opinion. With an ultimate goal to be a Journalist within the international media sphere its important that I don’t give up on the idea of expressing my opinion out of fear of people who may disagree but by the choice of expressing my opinion I’m able to develop my ‘brand’, in which social media and my online persona becomes an indispensable tool in building.
Remaining professional and owning my space
The urge to post your own unbridled, sometimes antagonistic and biased opinion on social media is one I personally find to be constant and one I continue to cage in moments of passionate debate or disagreeing with a political or social situation in the media. It’s understandable that people would use their social media in this way, in fact, I see it from others daily and on some of those days hourly. This space is our own, we have designed it from our choice of cover and profile photo, to the small biography we choose to write as a representation of ourselves on these profiles and further on it becomes a safe space. A space one can remove the presence through a quick block of another so its safe to post your opinion, no matter how antagonist it may be safe from criticism.
If I had allowed myself to fall into this unsaddled passionate posting my opportunities may well be much less in their frequency. Recently I have been working on an investigative journalistic piece focussing on a youth reform group within the Returned Serviceman’s League (RSL). The focus of this assessment is a passion of mine and the means to discuss the situation (journalism) is a goal and passion of mine. This is why I was ecstatic when I was put in touch with an accomplished journalist who works for the Age who was working on a similar story and has asked me to come along and help, an opportunity where I could learn from a successful Journalist I look up to, put my name on something and enjoy all of it. Now imagine if the same Journalist who had invited then went over to my Twitter page, or this blog and saw post after post slandering the RSL, displaying my anger at their decisions and failings, tarnishing the government who supports their choices and a myriad of other unbridled insults and slurs towards groups of people. I daresay this accomplished journalist would have seen an unprofessional and uncontrollably emotional young man ready to attack rather than listen, not great qualities for an impartial bystander there to document and disseminate.
Because of these choices to remain emotionally controlled and professional I’m able to broadcast information to anyone who may follow me that I find interesting and conversation-worthy, and that I think others may either be interested in or will discover an interest in effectively owning my space and inviting others to gain a benefit from participating in it. I still bear a somewhat biased view, and I offer that view willingly to my audience but I control that narrative because I control my space and to do all of that I control my emotions.
Bibliography:
- Feiseler, Meckel, Ranzini 2015, ‘Professional Personae – How Organizational Identification Shapes Online Identity in the Workplace’, Journal of computer-mediated communication accessed via https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/20/2/153/4067538
- My twitter: https://twitter.com/BParkinson18
- My facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benj.parkinson
rifletopen.wordpress.com 