The selfie stick has now been taken
one step further. Now you can pretend that your photographer is actually the
arm of someone who is taking a photo of you while holding your hand. It is not in shops yet and is only a
prototype. Apparently it's "a direct
commentary on the growing selfie stick phenomenon, and the constant, gnawing
need for narcissistic Internet validation". This instantly reminded me of
Erving Goffman’s presentation of self-theory. People portray the version of
themselves to please their followers. Individuals try to gather as much
information as possible about their friends and followers through social media.
The Internet is seen as a huge medium to portray ones identity on a large
scale. But the identity we see online is not necessarily a true indication of
that person.
As Erving Goffman says people want to know
more about others because they want to know what will be expected of them, and
that people act the way they do in order to impress others. I believe that
people who use social networking sites do so as a clandestine way of gathering
information about people. Those who post know this and so they post in order to
please these viewers. Hence, the online identity of a person is usually far
from accurate. That does not mean there is no truth in them it just means that
it is not entirely true and that it is for you to guage before making any
judgment.
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