INTRODUCTION

Part1: Social media’s role in creating a digital identity.

           1-1) Digital identity (definition).                         

           1-2) Construction of identity on facebook.

           1-3) online identity VS offline identity.

Part2: Social media’s impact on real life.

           2-1) Obsession with  on Facebook.

           2-2) Facebook and self-esteem.

           2-3) Impact of social media on communication. 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Social media’s impact on real life.

 

         2-1) Obsession with  on Facebook 

             Facebook gives us the ability to like everything such us statuses, photos, pages and comments, etc. The Facebook "Like" button is a feature that allows users to show their support for specific comments, pictures, wall posts, statuses, or fan pages. Added in February 2009, the "like" button allows users to show their appreciation for content without having to make a written comment[1]. In this current generation, however, it has taken a completely different connotation. It can give a powerful sense of accomplishment and acceptance or completely the opposite.

              The desire of getting likes on Facebook has become a universal phenomenon[2]. People focus on improving their online personalities rather than their real personalities, in a way they are starting to care more about being liked online instead of being liked by people around them in real life. Like has become much more than just a positive reaction toward a post or update; it has evolved into a feedback toward the person her/himself. As a rule of thumb, the more likes you get, the more loved you will feel. According to anthropologist Krystal D'Costa, the like button has become so influential as a tool, that it can boost or shatter one’s ego in effect, it has become “an extension of one's digital personal”[3]. For that reason, people have become virtually obsessed with gaining the approval of everyone on the web. Sometimes if they do not get the amount of likes that they want, they may delete the picture and upload it later, or they go as far as to skip the wait and ask their friends to like their posts, in order to be satisfied.

             People use Facebook to some extent as a way to get attention from others. Those that are not getting as many likes as others are seen less popular to the rest of the world. They believe that the level of popularity is directly related to the amount of online interactions they have. The better the image given on Facebook, the more of these interactions will happen. Because of that, people have begun to base their self-worth on the amount of "likes" they receive. In the past, being popular meant that you knew everybody and everybody knew you. Currently, being popular means that you get a huge number on what is posted in your profile page. Facebook, unfortunately, has changed the definition of what it means to be popular. Now, the amount of likes has the same equivalence to how popular you are.

      2-2) Facebook and self-esteem.

          When the user gets on Facebook, he only posts things that  he is  proud of .He posts certain images , videos and statuses to be maybe more clever and interesting. Then, he starts waiting how much “likes” he will get. The amount of feedback he will receive can affect his self-esteem. If he does not get enough ‘likes’, he will try to post another, but if he does not receive a good response. This could affect his thought; he can lose self-confidence and have a negative attitude toward himself, such as feeling dissatisfied with himself or his body[4]. Moreover, the more time a user spend on Facebook, the more depressed he becomes when he compares his life to others, especially when he only sees the successful part, which seems more exciting and perfect than his own does. This is specifically called social comparison[5]. It can lead to a bad feeling, which makes him thinking that there is something wrong with him and he is not at the same level of the others. Therefore, this comparison decreases the user’s own self-esteem, and, obviously, a low self-esteem is one of the factors that can lead to depression, decrease in self-confidence, and difficulties in achieving the kind of life the user wants. In results, we can say that the user’s self-esteem is linked by the amount of likes he will get, and the relationship between Facebook and self-esteem mostly not a positive one.

  

      2-3) Impact of social media on communication

          Social networking sites have become a part of our lives, in a way that they could be checked and updated daily. Basically, these social networks allow us to connect with friends and family whenever and wherever they are in an easy way. Although this is very useful, they are also destroying our ability to make real life conversations[6].

              Years ago, before the existence of social networking sites, friends would go out and have a good time. Now it is completely the opposite, sometimes you ask your friend to hang out and you get this answer “No, I will just message you on Facebook”. According to Paul Booth[7], social media certainly affects how we engage with one another across all venues and ages. “There has been a shift in the way we communicate; rather than face-to-face interaction, we’re tending to prefer mediated communication,” he says. “We’d rather e-mail than meet; we’d rather text than talk on the phone.”In addition, he argues that studies have shown that people actually are becoming more social and more interactive with others, but the style of that communication has changed so that we are not meeting face-to-face as often as we used to.[8] This means that face-to-face communication is replaced by text messaging. In other words, we began conversing by our hands instead of our mouths.

               Many young people prefer the online communication rather than face to face. Generally, this is because face-to-face communication has become something strange to them since they have limited experience about communication in real life, in a way that some of them do not even know how to start and end a conversation. This lack of experience has caused a reduction on talking directly to each other. In addition, Digital communication removed barriers that can restrict them for talking in a comfortable way in real life like shyness, because of the lack of feelings that are transmitted through this virtual word. Moreover, the majority of them hide behind a computer screen because of the possibility to say things that they cannot be said easily in real life, such as flirtation and verbal abuse. For these reasons, people are being driven away from the real interaction.

             However, this online communication cannot build a strong relationship as face-to-face communication. According to Paul Booth” we do not feel as personally connected to the people at the other end of our communication as we do when we are face-to-face. So while we’re communicating more, we may not necessarily be building relationships as strongly”[9].Therefore, this online communication does not have the same contact as the real one, such as meeting and having a conversation, because of the absence of several human elements that are needed to have a successful and strong conversation. Some of these important elements are body language, the tone of the voice, and the eye contact etc. Without these elements, it can be a risk of misunderstanding and words can be interpreted in different way. Basically, this words or messages can be misinterpreted when they are isolated from body language, and texts alone can transport the wrong message about how someone is really feeling. With online conversations, emotions are almost missing. In real life, the expressions of the face, gestures, and emotional tone in the person’s voice can help to show the meaning of words clearly[10], which can be very difficult for someone to express himself fully in virtual word as real life. As result, face-to-face communication is probably the effective way to build a strong connection between people rather than online communication.