“If all the world was once a stage, it has now become a reality TV show: we mere players are not just aware of the camera; we mug for it.” –Peggy Orenstein
In “I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” Peggy Orenstein considers the impact of social media like twitter on users’ sense of empathy, privacy, and self image. Orenstein describes her own meta-awareness of her actions as she searches for tweetable moments, from the grocery store to political sphere. And while she describes the creative fun of crafting poetic tweets, she wonders also if all of this external identity manufacturing leaves a deficit of introspection or present moment awareness. While writing about an afternoon spent with her daughter, Orenstein realizes her tweet “was not really about my own impressions: it was about how I imagined — and wanted — others to react to them” (Orenstein, 11).
How does growing up with this performance-oriented awareness affect tweens? During a time that is by nature self-centered, when identities are shifting and connections are sought with peers, how does the extra layer of creating an online persona amplify the journey of tween identity? What impact does it have on a developing sense of privacy to have social media outlets that can make everything public? Websites like twistori.com are emblematic of this public/private dynamic. Orenstein cites a study by Sherry Turkle, whose forthcoming book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, explores the impact of social media on relationships. Turkle’s study concluded that the presence of an audience does indeed influence young peoples’ relationship to their own self-identity. As Orenstein describes: “Among young people especially [Turkle] found that the self was increasingly becoming externally manufactured rather than internally developed: a series of profiles to be sculptured and refined in response to public opinion” (Orenstein, 11). To me, this sounds like a negative effect of social media. Perhaps, though, there’s another, more positive side to this phenomenon. Maybe this practiced self-awareness can translate from the external to the internal, and will help tweens who use social media like twitter become more genuinely self-reflective in other areas of their lives. Maybe the presence of an audience can help influence tween behavior in positive directions, too. Here's hoping.
Orenstein, P. (2010, August 1). I tweet, therefore I am. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/magazine/01wwln-lede-t.html?_r=1
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