Blog Post #3: Multiface Media

My reflection of myself is contingent on the social medium I use. I would not say that there are not many individuals who maintain Facebook sites with the utmost transparency, yet at the same time I would not say that people tend to fully devise identities. For me, I find that different truths in my personality manifest themselves on different sites.  Facebook is my most used social media. My Facebook reveals the most accuracy about my life and fulfills a greater range of attributes - from work to school to music interests and quotes to live by, I would argue that it is the most encompassing of social mediums I use. However the information I expose on my Facebook is drastically different from my LinkedIn or Twitter.  On LinkedIn I purposefully try to exhibit my professional face. I structure my profile much like a resume and follow groups that converse about the field I wish to work in - advertising. As my imagined audience is a prospective employer, I am careful to choose a profile picture that I feel a company would look at and say, "This girl looks put together and friendly. We want her representing us."  On the business front, I dress my Twitter in a similar manner.  However, I'd say my Twitter is more of the middle ground between personal and business.  I tweet about many ad related topics, however these are often interrupted by food tweets or something of a similar nature.  While I may cater both my LinkedIn and Twitter to the professional sphere, pieces of myself that I share are still truthful snippets of my life - articles I enjoyed to read, topics I found interesting. 

This year I started using a Tumblr. I've decided to use it in the most traditional blog-writing nature (not the whole re-blogging someone else's post facet). I decided to start a Tumblr because I enjoy writing and thought it would be a fun way to practice writing for an audience.  At first I excited about it, but I found that my Tumblr posts take a long time to write. Why? Because I have come to learn that I am exceedingly self-conscious of other people reading my writing.  But it is not necessarily other people or strangers - it's the people in my social circles that I am conscious about reading my work.  I have my Tumblr linked to my Facebook so that when a post is published it is presented on my feed.  I see my Tumblr as a test of my creativity and unfortunately I do not test it enough. I hold myself to a standard and do not like to post for the hell of it. Perhaps one can argue that the reflection of myself is carefully illuminated. 

Identities are revised all the time - whether its for the specific medium of for the moment in an individual's life, its a way of showing the change or growth in a person's life.  Of course that slightly depends on what is being revised.  Individuals cater their self expression to the medium they practice on.  As MCC majors one of those sentences that is forever engrained in our head is McLuhan's "the medium is the message." In this case, I feel like the specific social medium used conveys the intended message and reflection of one's self.