Until recently, the first things I did in the morning were turn off my alarm clock, hobble out of bed and check my Facebook. I would wait for the page to load, hoping that my recent, slightly obnoxious status had caused a miniature stir in my online community. I would create statuses with two goals in mind: first, to bring attention to myself, and second, to connect with my friends. There is a lot of work that goes into crafting a Facebook status, whether you want to admit it. First, you must think of who your
Against my better judgement, I find myself clicking through picture after picture of a scantily-clad girl I knew from 11th grade English. Blonde, flat-stomached and midriffbaring, she is surrounded by similarly dressed friends in a colorfully lit bar. The pictures irritate me. I look at the images and question the differences in our weekends and body shapes. I try reminding myself that the comparisons are unfair, but it’s hard to feel cool sitting at home, Facebook-stalking in my ratty, Edward Cullen t-shirt on a Friday night.
We’re in love!” No matter what your profile picture is, it’s undeniable that some thought was put into selecting it. Like a first impression, a profile picture speaks volumes about who someone is. In a single thumbnail you are stating who you are and what you’re about. What makes it different from an in-person first impression is that it’s highly manipulated and controlled. It wasn’t until recently that I first realized how much these statuses were affecting me.
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I won't deny that a well-received status gives me some satisfaction. Yet, there is some lingering doubt about whether the feedback is for the real me or the Facebook me.
audience is, and what their potential reactions could be. Next, you need something witty, funny or bitchy to say. If nothing exciting has happened, you still want to make your presence on the Internet known. I will not deny that a well-received status gives me some satisfaction. Yet, there is some lingering doubt about whether the feedback is for the real me or the Facebook me. Facebook enables users to pick and choose what pieces of their lives they want to share. The notion that we have the freedom to post whatever we want seems liberating, but the very act of controlling what other people know about us can also be oppressive. Connected to this online world that I’ve built for myself is a whole universe of my friends’ worlds. They step on and off podiums, describing the events of their seemingly action-packed weekends.
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The girl whose images mock my sorry weekend posted them, subconsciously, to create envy. After all, if you can’t brag on Facebook, where else can you do it? I’m not so self-absorbed as to think that pictures of her or anyone else are uploaded to make me feel inferior, but I do know that they were not selected at random — that each picture was a choice. A choice of what aspect of your personality you want to show. On Facebook you make your own reputation, and this was what my old classmate was building.
A popular boy from my high school wrote, “Fat chicks in skinny jeans is just not right.” I read it twice to make sure that’s what I saw. I felt the waist of my jeans tighten around my belly, and I cringed. Fat chicks? He must be talking about me. Obviously he’s talking about me. My insecurities made me paranoid and self-conscious. I loved my skinny jeans, but I began to question the appropriateness of wearing them. I let someone’s Facebook self, someone too afraid to say it to my face, challenge my own happiness.
Some people choose to upload dozens of drunken dancing pictures from the night before. Others post pseudo-artsy edited Instagrams of themselves laying in fields of flowers. Then there are the ones who post pictures of themselves with their significant other, kissing and sharing intimate moments. These profiles scream: “I’m in a couple!
I found myself Photoshopping a self-portrait. There was nothing wrong with the picture. In fact, it was a fairly decent picture of me, but it seemed inadequate next to all the other girls’ bikini profiles. Their sun-kissed pictures got more than comments — they got buzz. For better or worse, these images became the subject of discussion. The photos were