Can You Fully Express Your True Self Online?
How much of “you” really comes through on a digital screen?
We’re currently living in a time where human-to-human contact is at an all-time low. And like any revolutionary moment in history, the result of COVID-19 is that it has completely uprooted our former way of life. In the case of COVID-19 specifically, it has drastically affected the way that we physically interact with one another.
Thankfully for us, there are ways to interact with other people without ever coming into any sort of physical contact. Due to the overwhelming number of avenues for virtual communication, we’ve been able to do most things online with the help of the internet.
Ever since the internet was first introduced to us, there has been ongoing groundbreaking developments in technology which have made it easier for us to communicate online, limiting the amount of face time needed. It’s almost as if the internet has been waiting for the day where we took everything online.
First there was e-mail, then there was instant messenger, online forums, group chat, and eventually real-time video-chatting. The combination of these different methods of communication has paved way for the boom that has become social media.
And now, aside from solely communicating with people online, you can also create your own online version of yourself, your own online persona, to spark online relationships with complete strangers.
There are countless forms of social media outlets for the sole purpose of cultivating relationships — outlets for staying in touch with friends, for meeting new friends, and even dating. And in a time when we’re restricted from physically seeing other people in-person, these social networks have ultimately become essential towards getting our fill of human connection.
But, it makes me wonder — with all of the different ways that we can project ourselves online, how much of our true selves is really captured in its full essence?
How much of “you” really comes through on a digital screen?
That’s what I always think about whenever I see the constant overflow of status updates, photo uploads, tweets, live stories, and so on. After all, there’s no limit to how present we can be on the internet — just look at all of the people who post twenty or more photos each day to Instagram or thirty or more tweets each day to Twitter.
We can keep people as in-the-know as we much as we want and as often as we want. Or we can say nothing — that’s completely up to us.
But, for those who pour their heart and soul out online, how much of yourself really comes through? How well can you possibly know know a person if it’s only limited to a digital screen?
These have always been my questions especially when it comes to all of the online dating success stories that I hear (and personally know) about.
Did you say everything that you wanted to say?
Was everything that you said online true?
Did you ever purposely leaving anything out?
As we know, our online actions and intentions may not always necessarily be the same as they would have been in-person.
When it comes to saying something to someone’s face versus saying it online, I’d say that many of us would be much less inclined towards randomly yelling our opinions to a complete stranger on the street than they would to thousands of people on the internet.
That’s what the barricade of the internet and social media has done for us — it’s allowed us to act a little differently online than we would in-person because we know there is no physical confrontation.
It’s much easier to go on a rant and type paragraphs within the status update box of our Facebook profile than it is to see someone face-to-face and tell them how we really feel.
So, is social media and the internet making things easier for us? Or is it just changing how we would typically communicate? Are we the same person we are in-person as we are online?
Honestly, it’s really hard to tell. And who knows how this will affect us in the long run.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, check out “The Importance of Human Interaction in the Age of Technology”
