Reflections on Self Presentation

I confess I struggle with self presentation. Talking about myself with others and even writing about myself for others to see is not something I have ever felt comfortable with. While I know I am not alone in that sentiment, I can also see in this era of social media that there are plainly many many others who enjoy it. Facebook and Twitter, of course, are great venues for people who do not mind in the least sharing what they did over the past weekend, talking about how cute their pet cat is, or giving their opinion on items in the news. These are forms of communication and I am all for that. In no way do I criticize people who do this.

I sometimes wonder, though, about the motives of people who do this. Is it to connect with others? Is it to make themselves feel not-so-anonymous? Is it to gain a sense of empowerment? Is it to gain a sense of belonging by entering into a unique technology-driven world of safe outreach? Whether a person is introvert or extrovert, comfortable with others or not, the cyber world attracts all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. One aspect of it that I find fascinating is the fact that so much of the online interaction occurs between people who already know each other. Why not pick up the phone? Better yet, why not get together?

Overall, of course, it all seems to be working just fine. Yes, there are sad and tragic exceptions, but given the millions of acts of self presentation that occur every day, this is not surprising. (Given the number of gun owners in the world, it is also not surprising that some people die as a result of getting shot accidentally.) But I am not totally immune from the desire to self-present. With this particular writing, for example, I now have made over 400 entries in my blog. We are all social beings and, as a result, have a need to connect with others, a need to belong to environments beyond our own. The challenges is to do it in a way that is most meaningful to ourselves and to others.