Facebook and Its Impacts

Facebook and Its Impacts

  • Submitted By: dreamlam
  • Date Submitted: 07/29/2010 8:20 AM
  • Category: Technology
  • Words: 1206
  • Page: 5
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Personal Identity...Facebook Identity by Matthew Johnson

Matthew Johnson

Professor Wesch

Facebook Assignment

09-20-08

It is inherent in human nature to express oneself in order to forge a personal identity. The medium has only recently taken a complete shift into new territories, the online identity. An online identity is anything and everything we want it to be. Facebook has become a phenomenon, reaching millions of people all over the world. It has also become our generation’s form of personal expression. Through it we can create a profile of ourselves that we wish to share with others. We are allowed to see our own profiles and therefore our own identities from the third person perspective. This different perspective is imperative to how Facebook has changed our identities.

By viewing our own profile we see what others see and begin to compare our self-image to that which we see. Then we can change the profile to match our self-image more clearly. The profile changes, but we do not. Or do we? Does self-realization occur when we view our life through another’s perspective? And does that realization cause us to change attributes of our real identity? Or does it simply cause us to make false statements on our profile in order to allow ourselves to remain as we are? Is the profile real? Does the profile become us? Or do we become the profile?

The answer is both. We change aspects of our profile and identity in order to create a new self. But the window for viewing is limited. Our personal information is limited to: sex, relationship status, sexual preference, political and religious views, activities, interests, favorite music, favorite TV shows, favorite movies, favorite books, favorite quotations, education, and work. These Facebook parameters are now dictating what we value as important characteristics of ourselves and others. This affects how we define personality. Personality is beginning to be defined by the set of information that...

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