The real you?

Dear Andrew L. Mendelson and Zizi Papacharissi,

                After reading your article, I suddenly became aware of the way people use multimedia such as Facebook and Twitter to present themselves. Being a Facebook user myself, I understand and performed the same kind of identity alternation that would present myself in a different light. Although it was mostly just me putting cartoon pictures for my profile picture, it is considered one way of disguising ourselves. For the people who knew me, it might not mean much to them. But for people who stumbled upon my profile page, it would give them absolutely no information about myself. I really liked the part where you stated: "In everyday life, people consciously and unconsciously work to define the way they are perceived, hoping to engender positive impressions of themselves" (Mendelson 252). It really makes me think of what I was trying to accomplish back in High School by disguising myself.

                The section about Comments really made me think. I liked the way you stated that "Comments allow friends to relive the picture events, emphasizing the shared good times" (Mendelson 266). What some people might not know, is the true meaning behind certain photos. To a few people like myself, I would only upload photos for the sake of letting people know what has happened in my life these few days, and even that is rare. Other people, who would upload a different profile picture every day have a different motive than the rest. By presenting themselves positively in the digital world, they would feed off of the comments posted by others in their real life. Gathering self-esteem through Facebook comments is not mentioned in the text, but it is definitely another way of seeing the different behaviors the digital you can affect the real you.