On Facebook, a persona can be created with photos, comments, videos and status updates. As we un-tag ourselves from objectionable photographs, we create a character that merely portrays the outer surface of our true selves. We cannot fully exhibit who we might be because it is often flooded with parents, or employers looking to evaluate individuals based on what their portrayals of their facebook persona.
As with upholding a certain persona on facebook (especially when involved in a sorority), its important that I do not post pictures of myself with alcoholic drinks in hand or anything that could be thought of as suggestive when wearing apparel or items hat signify my sorority. I feel it is important to uphold a brand that you have chosen to openly exhibit. It is also about representing the organization in a good light and being respectful towards the organization itself. Often times, in college, it is easy to create stereotypes that could hurt the organization or strain efforts to recruit new members. The University of Florida states that individuals representing organizations on campus should remove pictures that contain alcohol or drugs or anything suggestive. Generally, it would be too difficult to point out every single person who is guilty of this, but as a woman I feel it is even more important to uphold a certain ideal, especially on a social network that can be viewed by mostly everyone. In choosing to place pictures that do not portray me as a drunken college student, I am trying to portray myself as a responsible, careful individual. This persona I am creating is not at all entirely true because like all other college students, I choose to drink but the difference is I choose not to place evidence of it on facebook. The picture I have shown below is typical of what I may post in a party-like scene. Although, anyone who views my facebook can tell that there is a party in the background, (this usually consists of a darkly lit room, tons of people in the background and usually plastic cups everywhere) I make sure the pictures I post have no one in my sorority holding a cup or beer in their hand. As you can from this picture, there is clearly a table behind us (my sorority sisters) and we made sure right before the picture was taken to place the drinks down on the table before we posed for the picture. The second picture shows Amy and I posing for a picture with brothers from another Latin Fraternity. This picture is a good example of a picture that did not contain any alcohol (even though the kitchen 2 feet away had plenty of it) because we were both wearing necklaces that had our Greek organization’s letters and colors on it.
My facebook tends to portray me as an out-going, friendly individual who loves taking photographs as memories. The truth, which would be revealed unless they actually knew me personally, would be that even though I tend to enjoy the company of others, I tend not to carry a camera when it comes time to take pictures. Typically what ends up happening is that someone else will take a picture of me or of me in the picture and will later tag me so that that same photograph will show up in my photo albums. To date, there have been maybe ten photos that I myself have placed on facebook. Consider this first picture below. It is a picture of myself but as the viewer can see, it was taken at an angle that someone else must have taken the picture. Furthermore, the picture shows me turning around to my left side to pose for the picture for the person who is in the backseat of the car. Often times when I go out with friends, they just tell me where or when to pose for the picture and I oblige. The second picture below is one of the few pictures that I post in my photo albums that are picture of me taken by me. I added blue and green hues to find it more interesting and instead of smiling, I chose to look thoughtful. I notice I have fewer self-portraits than most facebookers. The reality is that although I am grateful that I am able to have so many memories from others taking pictures, I tend not to be the one is taking the pictures hardly ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment