Digital Identity {bridging the gap between reality and snapshots of reality}

 

I decided that my blog post would be about how I examined my own digital presence via Instagram.  Now, as I will be interviewing myself I seek to give you my rhetorical purposes for disclosing part of my identity through Instagram.

I believe that my intended audience is fairly simple and consists of small group of individuals.  My followers and those who I follow tend to be friends from church, school, and a few other unique people who I’ve met throughout the years and keep in contact with through the world wide web. I would say that the typical age group of my followers are between the ages of 16-37. Typically, each picture that I post has a text which is an explanation of the picture, a dorky joke, or a more spiritual quote. There is a simplicity to the wording in which I choose to use and I refrain from talking about my day, or using too many hash tags (#Ihatethenawholesentenceismadeoutofhashtags #irony). Fields in which I develop are simple or humorous in nature.  If I had to sum up my motto for my Instagram or purpose for each photo in five words they would be: simple, creative, fresh, happy, thankful. I believe that I tend to communicate the good and simple joys of life with the spin of moments that make me laugh and live, content in that moment.  On this flipped side, I say that I am thrilled to be in school for Biblical Counseling and possess a heart that has a bent towards the mission field. That statement is listed in my profile without the use of pictures. I hope that the photos that I post present a balanced life, between the joys in life as well as matters that are serious and sometimes difficult.

The gap is that my photographs show the objects of my affection. This is where reality and snapshots of reality are separeted. Think about it, in life, you must get to know me better to see what is important to me and how I live based upon those priorities and responsibilities. If you were to follow me on Instagram, you would automatically see what my hobbies are, what I spend my time doing, and what I’m learning in school etc. This factor makes everyone’s digital identy a complicated and yet interesting topic.  The individual has the freedom to present herself in a way in which she approves of based off her own standards of how she longs to be perceived. It’s basically the idea that on Facebook, profile pictures are what people desire to look like and the pictures that they are tagged in are what they really look like. In this case, we have the power to choose to be honest in what we selects to share with the world, or we can choose to make ourselves look better to the point of being unrealistic. This gap is often the same in the real world when people are aquaintances rather than friends. Each can see only the character in which the individual chooses to reveal, but when people get to know each other by spending time together in midst of different environments, under pressure, and in different moods –their true character can be seen. I like to think that my digitital identity is that of my identity in reality, because I’m sharing with an open and honest heart. It turns out that being honest in reality can translate to being honest on the interweb, for me personally at least!

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