Whither the Individual?

            Throughout the past decade or so, our social lives have been almost completely transported to the digital world. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have moved society’s friends and networking base to the Internet. Through social media sites, blogs, wikis, discussion boards, chat rooms, etc., we can connect with and express ourselves to people all around the world. The use of these digital advances allows ourselves to extend and expand our identities.

            According to The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University, there are five ways in which social media has affected people’s lives: choice, conversation, curation, creation and collaboration. The two factors that I find to be the most important when analyzing the extension of the individual due to social media are choice and creation.

            Social media allows society to have a choice in the way they express themselves online. For example, we can choose which social networking sites to use and how we use them. There are 500 million worldwide active Facebook users, however the way and reason people use the site varies immensely. For example, college students may use Facebook to connect with friends from high school as well as meet and socialize with new friends they meet in classes and on the weekends. Older generations may use Facebook in order to also connect with long-lost friends, as well as find family members that they have lost touch with. Many companies and organizations use Facebook to connect with their target markets, giving them updates and information about the brand. People have the choice to decide how they will use a social media site, and they also have the choice to not use it whatsoever.

            Another thing that social media gives us a choice in is the content in which we decide to publish on our profiles. Yes, Facebook has a generic profile layout, containing sections such as movie, music, and television interests, birthday, sex, relationship status, etc. However, not all of these sections need to be filled out. It is up to the user the way in which he or she wishes to utilize the website. A user can choose to have thousands of pictures of them tagged, allowing any Facebook user to view what they have been up to in their lives; or, a user can choose to make their profile completely private, only allowing those in which they know to view their content.  Although the layout of a Facebook profile is mostly very basic, each user can individualize the content and form his or her own social media identity.

            The ability to “create” online has completely transformed the way that the media works. Anyone can create content and publish it online. For example, programs such as iMovie on Apple computers allow people to create and edit movies, using their own pictures and video. After creating a movie or video, one can publish it on sites such as YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo, allowing people all over the word to watch it. People have created complete identities on video-sharing sites; musical artists have even been discovered online, and given record deal offers even before an entertainment manager has met or heard them in person. A recent example of this phenomenon is 10 year old Maria Aragon, who just last week uploaded a video of herself on YouTube covering Lady Gaga's song "Born This Way." Lady Gaga herself responded to Aragon’s video, saying, "This is why I make music. She is the future." After Lady Gaga’s message, Aragon got asked to perform on her local Canadian radio station, as well as the Ellen DeGeneres Show. After only being available online for eleven days, Aragon’s video currently has 15,842,827 views. Maria Aragon’s story exemplifies the idea that social media allows us to create and extend our identities online. Without the use of social media, who knows how long it would have taken for Aragon’s breathtaking voice to be discovered. She has extended herself and her passion for music to the world through the use of social media.

            Another form of social media that allows people to extend themselves is blogs. Blog sites such as Tumblr and Blogspot allow users to post any content they want, such as diary-like posts, album reviews, photography, or virtually anything they wish to publish for the world to see. By having a personal blog, people can create their own “personal space,” and extend themselves through media. Before the digital age, it was rather difficult to voice your opinion and get that opinion out there in a short amount of time. With the use of blogs, as well as updating Facebook and Twitter statuses, we can have any opinion or thought we have reach anyone in the world within seconds. This idea clearly exemplifies how social media can extend ourselves, as well as our thoughts and creative ideas and identities.

            There is a direct relationship between the popularity of social media and the extension of the individual. Social media’s fundamental purpose is to create an online identity, and utilize that identity and its tools to define ourselves, and to extend our beliefs and opinions to a world in which we would otherwise go unnoticed. Social media allows people who are too shy or do not have the ability or resources of being on the cover of a magazine or on television to create an identity that can reach virtually billions of people. It is becoming easier and easier to have an effect on society through the use of social media and other digital outlets. As we learn to participate as members of a more evolved "collective organism" of "hyper-people,” our identities are expanding and broader definitions of our self are made through choice and creation.