Digital presentations often do not reflect true identities.
Post published by Jamie Krenn Ph.D. on Jul 10, 2015 in Screen Time
During 4th of July weekend, my husband and I took our toddler daughter to a park. We often go to the same one overlooking the Hudson River because she likes to climb the curvy ladders as well as play hide and seek within the slides. It was a day similar to others in that we werelaughing, and smiling and trying to keep her hydrated. Parents who frequent parks without a hint of a shady tree understand this challenge. It was like any other playground adventure except for one thing…
Across the field, I noticed a mom angry with her jumpy, unhappy kids. She yelled and tugged at them by the arms to come closer. I heard several times “Come here!” or “Move over here!” “Fix your face… Smile, now!” Apparently, she was not letting up until she got a “fantastic, happy” snapshot complete with river background, ear-to-ear smiles, and cuddling. After several digital captures, the mom and kids parted ways. Quickly. She next spent several minutes on a bench, rapidly swiping and clicking her hand-held “happy family” image producer unaware of her children’s location. I noticed one traveled very far down to the river to throw rocks. Contrived bliss for the digital masses.
The “Facebook-self” and a true-self comparison study published recently focused on the adverse effects of incongruence between these two identities as well as some of the psychological predictors of this behavior (Gil-Or, Levi-Belz & Turel, 2015). Incongruity between the real-self and an ideal-self as Rogers (1959) coined, is not an uncommon act among those trying to escape their current existence or create a fictitious sense of pleasant family life. Often the Facebook-self appears to be more “socially acceptable” or “attractive” with families and individuals (Gil-Or, Levi-Belz & Turel, 2015). In other words, users want to put on a good show. Presentations such as these do not cause concern for seeing one enter an arena of psychological dysfunction. However, some of the tenants can potentially affect a family dynamic in negative ways. Clearly, rough, forced actions with children do not build lasting family bonds.
You mean that the guy with 3,000 “friends” is a fake? All those daily updates and posts advertising for others is fake? I already knew that.
Some like to pretend that they are followed because they are interesting or even envied. Not so
sounds like a contrived article to prove a point…
Facebook makes you feel like everyone is having fun but you. At any given time at least one of your friends is doing something interesting, or more interesting than you
@4:29pm: Exactly. Facebook’s entire appeal is based upon human ego.