“Think about the social media platforms that you use on a regular basis. What kind of image, if any, do you try to portray online? Do you create separate personas for different platforms? How representative would you say your online profiles are of you as a whole?”

I feel like I answered this question in my first blog post for this class. But to summarize, I think that I definitely have a case of “identi-frag” online; Instagram is where I publish artistic photos that I would take, but Snapchat is where I send ugly selfies to my friends when I’m bored in the restroom. Tumblr is for me to curate music or blog posts, and Facebook is where I remain updated on the social lives of my friends and communities.

One of the most resonating points that was brought up in class was the concept of social norms. While there is still an online etiquette for social media platforms, I think it’s different from the societal norms that we witness in real life. While users online can step away from an offensive comment or refrain from responding right away, it’s harder to mask a face expression or cover the awkwardness of a silence in conversation in real life and in real time. As a result, I think that my online profiles are very representative of myself as a whole, but it’s different from what I might feel comfortable sharing in public to friends. Because let’s face it, you need to have a filter for speaking in public. My guilty obsession of K-pop, for example, is something I wouldn’t want to talk about with my friends in real life. Instead, I would activate that persona when I’m on Tumblr or YouTube or K-pop blogs, where I feel like I am in a more acceptable and comfortable environment. In conclusion, I do use different platforms for different uses, and I do think my whole self is being represented online, but there is still a difference in what I would share online versus in-person.