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Corinne Eckert Dr. Kozma English 1103 Honors 26 November 2013 Technology and Social Media: Community-Oriented or Isolation at its Finest? Abstract A major revolution began in the 1990s that will forever change the lives of people worldwide. Technology truly started advancing during the nineties and has since given way to an endless list of inventions, connection methods, entertainment options, and helpful machines. With the growth of global electronic expansion came the growth of social media networks. The need to connect and communicate with others spawned a new, virtual lifestyle for younger generations. Because of the physical separation between individuals via computers and devices, one is shielded from others by a screen a technological wall between virtual life and real life. This detachment enables individuals to both hide from others and enhance their online lives. The following project delves into the effects and roles that social media sites and the technological wall have in and on society today while also exploring multiple ways in which people can shift their identities from behind said wall. Have you ever noticed how big of a role technology plays in your life? As you walk from place to place, do you realize that many people are attached to their technological devices? Whether it be a computer, cell phone, iPod, or iPad, each device stores a great deal of information and provides various outlets for communication via the world of social media. Social media can be seen as both a negative and a positive based on what it offers society: it helps people connect to others worldwide faster than ever before, but also allows people to hide behind their devices - a sort of technological wall between the virtual and the real. From observations and interviews I conducted on High Point Universitys campus and freshman class Facebook page, I have concluded that this technological wall destroys face-to-face interaction by allowing people to remake themselves or act differently online via multiple technological tactics.

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Throughout the past ten years alone, social media not only helped many people effortlessly connect with each other and advertise ideas globally, but also led to the growth of profile alteration due to a technological wall. This wall is created by the physical separation between individuals due to the screens of electronic devices. Some may see this as a positive allowing them to reflect, retype, and edit (Turkle 187) their work and profiles according to Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together, a novel that explores how technology impacts society. However, in the grand scheme of the internet, the wall can be harmful to the social skills of many people. The illusion of privacy (Turkle 188) that the internet provides affords people the feeling that they can create their own little ideal [people] (Turkle 191) instead of representing their true selves online. This, as evidence in the past few years shows, creates a sort of vagueness now associated with social media. Because others information and photos are readily accessible to millions around the world, it is easy to use these materials to remake oneself into a better or completely separate person. Besides photos and information, one can also shift his or her identity by utilizing tactics such as language adjustment and modes of communication. All of this recreation is enveloped in a theory explained by Amy Gonzales and Jeffrey T. Hancock, authors of Identity Shift in Computer-Mediated Environments and communication professors at Cornell University. This idea known as public commitment is the process by which individuals obligate themselves to a particular identity during the act of public self-presentation. This alteration is caused by the recognition of a unit relationship between the self and something else and the desire to mimic that something else (Gonzales 169-170). Common ways to mimic include changing ones personality, appearance, and or language to match the preferred crowd. The internet today offers endless opportunities for people to get involved in

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new environments, which brings about the importance of self-representation. Since social media is social in the aspect of computerized connectivity, one can never be certain of the person behind an online profile. This is both helpful and harmful for the same reason people can enhance their lives from behind the technological wall to impress someone else, but other profile users can do the same. Not all people choose to alter their profiles, but when select individuals do, they are able to easily yet consciously misrepresent themselves. One social media site that has heightened internet activity recently is Facebook, a worldwide website that people use to advertise to, communicate, and share photos and videos with anyone on the internet. Like many colleges today, High Point University in North Carolina utilizes the internet to publicize the university, then invites its accepted students to join a Facebook group to get to know their potential future classmates. As a member of the Official High Point University Class of 2017 Facebook group, I am able to access the page and observe how the 1,200 individuals in the freshman class interact. Before college began this past August, various students posted questions and pictures on the page to mingle with the other members online. According to Dana, a freshman girl in the honors program at High Point, the Facebook page is so addictive. She, like many other High Point freshman, is greatly attracted to and entertained by the page, checking it frequently throughout the day. On the page today, posts are less frequent than they were and the conversations have shifted to more relevant topics. Many individuals now converse about happenings on and around campus, such as concerts, homework, and most recently, the student-government campaigns. In any situation, campaigning is a common way to advertise oneself, and with the help of social media, ones message can be spread more rapidly than by word of mouth or through physical advertisements. According to Jim Taylor, a man with a doctorate degree in psychology

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and the author of Psychology Todays article Is Technology Stealing Our (Self) Identities?, the self-identities of this generation of young people are now shaped by external forces including sites like Facebook, which is why many people use these sites as a means of globally representing themselves (Taylor). This claim is definitely true from my observations of and interviews with High Point University students. Cassie Behling, a freshman honors student, says she does not always have her phone with her, but uses it constantly when she does. She and Griffin Thomas, a freshman who lives across campus from Cassie, both agree that social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are the main reasons they check their phones frequently. At the time of my observations of the Class of 2017 Facebook page, student government elections were rapidly approaching. The entire page filled with pictures, electronic posters, slogans, and advertisements about each candidates ideas and values. People were posting, commenting, and checking the page multiple times per day solely to see how the candidates advertised themselves in the first major representative opportunity of our years at High Point University. As I read each post, I gained a strong sense of how each member wanted himself or herself to be seen amongst peers. By analyzing each post, I was able to tell who wanted a position in the student government and who did not take the elections as seriously. Because text-based communication is the main form of communication via Facebook, a lot can be implied by the way a person types. Research has found that personality traits are reflected by unique patterns of certain linguistic features in text-based communication, explain Gonzales and Hancock (Gonzales 172). This is greatly evident in my findings - some posts were long, detailed, and formally written, while others were randomly-uploaded blurbs with incorrect grammar and insufficient information. One student, who I will refer to as Kelsey, wrote the longest posts on the page, immediately

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grabbing the attention of any onlooker. She wrote each paragraph eloquently, clearly stating the changes she wished to enact on campus and within the High Point community. Kelsey also utilized another tactic of technological manipulation enhancement of photos. Accompanying her lengthy posts were professional photos of her at different locations around campus. She embodied exactly what an interviewee of Turkle said about posting photos: Youre going to get your makeup on, put on your cute little outfit, take your picture and post it [online], and thats what people are going to expect that you are every day, when really youre making it up (Turkle 191). Though this explanation seems condescending, Kelsey did exactly that she enhanced her claims by appearing friendly, community-oriented, and involved through her pictures. By typing such long explanations, using proper language, and taking professional photos, Kelsey utilized the technological wall to gain popularity without any face-to-face contact with the students. As I shared my observations with my classmates and friends, their reactions were similar each time Kelsey was mentioned a disgusted, irritated facial expression. Because I had seen how properly she represented herself on the Facebook page, I was confused as to why her name evoked the same reaction from everyone around me. When I questioned this, my friends and classmates responded with because she is very mean, because she is extremely fake and a compulsive liar, or because she gossips about everyone behind everyone elses back. Taken aback by the information, I began to think: maybe the technological wall allows her to remake herself into the person she wants people to see. As Taylor notes, because we are fundamentally social beings and an essential part of our development involves finding our place in the societalcontext in which we live, feedback from that social world plays a significant role in the evolution of our self-identities (Taylor). Although she seems rude in real life, Kelsey

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may enjoy the positive feedback she gets from campaigning on Facebook and thus feels more comfortable hiding behind the wall than confronting people in person. Regardless of if this is true or not, there is a stark difference between how she is viewed in reality versus how she is viewed online. While observing the Class of 2017 page, I also came across another, more obscene example of identity shift. Jake, a blonde-haired, kind-looking teenager, began posting various inappropriate photos to the Facebook page as his campaign. To this day, I am not sure if he was actually running for a student government position, but if he was, he definitely promoted himself the wrong way. Firstly, he never wrote any ideas or campaign phrases on his posts - all of his posts were photos. This may not seem like an incorrect manner of advertising, but his photos were taken with a smartphone an example of the power of modes of communication. For example, Turkle explains that if you are at your computer, the medium is formal and so is the message. If you are running around and you swipe a few keys on your phone to send a text [or upload something online], the medium is informal, and so is the message, no matter how much you may have edited the content (Turkle 199). Because Jakes photos were taken on and posted online from his cell phone, one can assume that he did not treat his campaign as seriously as others like Kelsey did, who took the time to type, edit, and upload their content via computers. Secondly, all of his photos were similar the only words in them were I masturbate. Jake and his friends took pictures holding an I masturbate sign while at various college parties. Some of the photos had beer cans in the background and others were of his friends making different faces with the sign. One picture even had the sign across a girls chest. Because of the vulgar content of the photos and the cell phones role in uploading them, Jake, possibly unknowingly, publicized his lack of effort in his campaign and degraded himself

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socially. In addition to this, Jakes friends campaigned for him, posting comments like Vote for Jake because he masturbates! or Jake can do anything. You know why!. Although the posts were humorous and added some lightheartedness to the other, more serious posts, the audience can immediately assume that this individual is inappropriate and lacks respect for himself and others. Jake greatly misrepresented himself on the Facebook page through his language and his appearance, and implied that he does not take himself seriously. Contrarily to Kelsey, Jake is a sweet, friendly person in real life. I know Jake personally and although he is outgoing, he is not outwardly inappropriate. A girl who interacts with Jake on a daily basis expressed her concern to me: I just dont get it! Hes not usually like that. I dont know why he would make himself look so bad online! When seeing the difference between him and Kelsey, I began to wonder if he feels protected and less burdened by expectations (Turkle 188) from behind his screen and uses the technological wall as a way to raise his popularity with his classmates by making them laugh at his shameless immaturity. Facebook and other social media networks have dominated a large portion of the technological world in the most recent decade and have caused both positive and negative shifts in human interaction. For advertisers, the networks aid in sending messages with great speed, especially to the younger generations of the world. This is supported by Griffin Thomass explanation of his use of his phone: [I check my phone about] every five minutes, if not sooner. I text, calltweet, check Facebook and Instagram shop online everything! Although these devices are helpful in various ways, the attachment society has developed to electronics today has created a negative snowball effect. Th[e] loss of actual, physical contact is just the beginning, explains Sean Simons, author of an article explaining how humans rely too heavily on technology entitled Technology Destroys Interpersonal Communication. He discusses how

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technology is [humans creation] alone, separating us from every other species, yet we continue to develop it to the point that we destroy a distinctly human process communication (Simons). Because of the availability of alteration and the need to feel accepted, humans are more comfortable living their virtually-enhanced lives than their real lives and are therefore separating themselves from one another physically. The gap between communication and interaction will grow, warns Simons, to the point [where] there will be no need for physical contact (on a social level) (Simons). The accessibility of the internet expands as days pass, allowing individuals greater access to their profiles at any place and time. With this, they are able to customize their profiles, which can be good for some to delete embarrassing pictures or posts by friends but for others, allows them to invest in being an entirely different person. Due to the rapid growth of intertechnological communication, many resort to this type of connectivity because it shield[s] the writer from the view of the reader (Turkle 187). Because various profiles are made each day, the desire to fit in amongst a group or organization intensifies the urge to change aspects about oneself, as was the case with Kelsey and Jake. The student-government elections created a sea of competition to be better than other candidates and accepted by the rest of the student body. The concept of public commitment rings true throughout both examples, but if people begin to feel more comfortable online than in real life, there will be less truth behind every profile and less face-to-face confrontation between individuals. The ever-enhancing inventions of social media networks and technological programs have aided society tremendously by providing outlets of communication worldwide, endless entertainment, and multiple ways in which to save, share, edit, post, and work on projects and activities. With the growing access to and need for a technological life, there is no longer an

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immediate need to interact with others in person. As is evident in the examples discussed, the privacy of the internet allows individuals to seclude themselves while presenting themselves using multiple strategies unknown to the receiver. At a screen, [one] can always hide behind deliberated nonchalance explains Turkle (Turkle 188-198), and enhance oneself in any way desirable. In explaining this, Taylor stresses that self-identity is no longer self-identity, meaning derived from the self, but rather [it] is an identity projected onto us by popular culture and [is] in no way an accurate reflection of who we really are (Taylor). As discussed, specific measures are taken to ensure that others view profiles in a certain manner, for example through pictures, information, and language used. This modifying ability may be beneficial to some in social and career aspects, but in the realm of morality and truth, technology is enabling and encouraging dishonesty by destroying face-to-face interaction and promoting ambiguous profile creation.

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Works Cited
Gonzales, Amy L. Hancock, Jeffrey T. Identity Shift in Computer-Mediated Environments. Ebscohost. Media Psychology Volume 11 Issue 2, 2008. n.d. Web. 20 October 2013. Simons, Sean. Technology Destroys Interpersonal Communication. Collegiate Times. 27 October 2010. Web. 1 November 2013. Taylor, Jim. Technology: Is Technology Stealing Our (Self) Identities?. Psychology Today. 27 July 2011. Web. 1 November 2013. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Basic Books, 2011. Print.