The Social Media Personality

Social media has become one of the main ways people express their identities and connect with others. A lot of people present themselves differently on social media than they do in everyday life.

This is called- the social media personality. The social media personality is when someone presents themselves differently online from how they are in real life.

If there’s one thing we can take away from the social media personality- it’s that social media isn’t real.

The Pressure to Curate

On social media, people post what they want people to see. Most content is edited. Photos are filtered. People make several takes of their reels before posting them, and even those are filtered and edited too. There are even apps people use to change the shape of their body for social media. Many people generate pictures of themselves on ChatGPT, and they can ask ChatGPT to make them look a certain way.

Why do people do this? Because social media tends to reward certain type of content. There is a certain look, a certain aesthetic, a certain “personality type” that gets favored. The engagement with this content- the likes, the comments, the shares, the reposts- reinforces this part of someone’s identity, which may not even be real. But real or not, people start to notice a pattern in what performs well and start curating more of that highly saturated content, even if their online presence isn’t authentic.

The social media personality is often rewarded but heavily saturated- and is it always authentic?

Comparing and Competing

It can be challenging for a lot of people to show up authentically online. There is so much competition on social media. Business owners compete for clients. Influencers compete for followers. It turns social media into a really toxic environment. A certain image or an ideal of what someone should be gets promoted, and more and more people feel pressured to fit that image in real life. Certain frivolous products also get promoted on social media, which more and more people buy into. Everyone is competing to be number one.

Life is not a competition. The person with the most likes or the most followers isn’t winning in life. It just means they have more viewers.

Think about it. Years from now at the very end of your life, what are you going to be thinking about? Are you going to be thinking about the number of followers you had on social media? The thousands of people you didn’t even know? Are you going to be thinking about all the likes and the comments you got on your content? From the thousands of people you didn’t even know.

What do you want to be remembered for? What do you want your legacy to be? Do you want to be remembered for the number of followers and likes and shares you had on social media? Is that what people are going to be talking about when they talk about what they remember about you?

Think about these things before you beat yourself up for not having enough engagement on social media.

Identity is More Complex Than What Appears Online

Before you beat yourself up for not having enough engagement on social media remember this; people are multi-faceted. There is so much more to a person’s identity than how they appear on social media. Human beings are complex, and each person is different. If we were to take a fingerprints test, all of our results would be different because we all have different DNA.

You are not your social media presence. You are worth so much more than what you post online. You are worth so much more than the number of followers you have or the engagement you get. There is so much more to your identity than your social media presence. Social media showcases what people present to the world, not who they actually are.

Take the time to get to know yourself, and others, beyond what they post online.

You are so much more than your social media engagement. What do you want your legacy to be? What will you be thinking about years from now at the end of your life?

Social Media Isn’t Inherently Bad

Although you can’t get to know a person for who they are just by looking at their social media page, this doesn’t mean social media is necessarily bad. There are both good things and bad things about social media.

Social media can be a great way to connect with others. It can be an excellent way to stay in touch with others. If you’re a business owner, it can be a great way to network with other professionals. The goal of this post isn’t to tell people not to use social media, but rather to use it mindfully.

Using social media mindfully can create a very different experience. It can help you see what’s real and what isn’t, and it can allow you to use your own mental filter to determine which accounts are worth following, what content is worth posting, and what content is worth viewing. Having the awareness that people only post a literal snapshot of their lives on social media can create a more positive experience for you online.

Can posting be fun? Sure! Can it be a great way to promote your product or your business? Absolutely! Is it a good networking tool? Yeah! Keep using social media! Just use it mindfully, and don’t feel like you have to compare and compete with others is all.