Marshal McLuhan talks a lot about how we preform on a front and back stage. Front stage being the show we put on for our audience or the people in our lives, and back stage being the place where we can take our masks off and be the most “us” we possibly can. Like for instance, celebrities from decades ago, who did not grow up with social media showed their face to the public and let the people see what they wanted, but spent a great deal of their lives to themselves. These days, with social media being as popular as it is, celebrities share their front and back stage to the world, constantly. Take Kyle Jenner for instance; we can see what she is up to at almost any hour of the day, whether she is broadcasting her breakfast on her Snapchat story or she is doing an Instagram Live of her getting ready for the night. However, what we have come to see with social media is that even though people are posting their back stage activities, it is not as raw and organic as Marshal McLuhan’s idea of the back stage. People like Kyle Jenner are hardly real to begin with. She posts photo’s saying “Natural face”, but in reality her photo was edited after her entire makeup team give her a fresh look, not to mention she got an entire facial reconstruction. This is the content social media, especially Instagram, consists of—flawless manicured lives, smooth faces, small waists, curvy bodies, etc. Even further, as a young mother she portrays her motherhood to be glamorous, however, that is far from reality.
I have noticed my Instagram becoming the same way. Over the past year or so I have gained a decent number of followers. Certain pictures I posted would hardly get any likes whereas other photos skyrocketed with likes. It came to the point where I created two separate accounts. I have my one main account with over 12K followers (not fake followers), where I do not use my real last name and I misspell my first name. On there I post the manicured photos, which like Kyle Jenner does not organically depict my real life. I do this solely because this account gets so much attention when I post what seems to satisfy my followers. Everything is color-coded, looks aesthetically pleasing, the amount of posts keeps the audience from being overwhelmed with my content but is enough to keep them engaged, and I interact with my followers daily. The reason I care to do this is for one sole purpose—other accounts and companies have reached out to me offering to pay me for advertising their products. I have made a decent amount of job connections and money through this Instagram account. I do have another Instagram account, which is also on private. I do not use anything close to my real name nor am I noticeable in my profile picture. On here, I have around 100 of the closest people I know, and this is where I freely post what goes on in my life, the funny things, the ugly photos, the silly stories, and so on. It is like a digital neighborhood for all my friends from high school and college who I do not see often. This is how we all keep up with the drama in our lives.
I use Twitter just to retweet funny memes and videos. I do not post any personal information on there nor do I use my real name and I am on private. I have my Facebook on the highest privacy setting and again, I do not use my real full name. I only go on Facebook to see what my family or old friends are up to. I do not fully engage on that platform nor have I posted any content in years. There were accounts like Ask.Fm that I had in high school that I have fully deactivated. I figured there was no sense to have that information easily assessable and out there if I never used it anymore. Not to mention I do not know if I was as cautious and careful on social media in high school as I am now.
When my name is Googled, a few photos pop up of me or people in my family or whom I am friends with. My social media accounts still do pop up because I used to use my real name, but even if my handles are located, they cannot be accessed unless the user follows me.
As far as my camera roll goes, I have a lot of content on there. There are a lot of personal things, like screenshots from text messages. Most of my camera roll is a photo of myself that I really liked and then 10 more copies of it all with different editing and filters. I have a lot of fun changing background colors and playing around with filters, therefore my camera roll looks incredibly repetitive. Another huge reoccurrence in my camera roll are screenshots of memes or other things like inspiring quotes I found on Pinterest. Since June 13th, 2015, I have saved 3,226 photos to my camera roll. Honestly, if I was not so lazy and I went through all of the photos, I could easily delete around half because there are so many screenshots in there that I have just forgot about or lost its relevance. I love looking back on old memories therefore I take my phone out to capture a moment probably more than I should. I spend a lot of time capturing moments than I do living in them, which is what I have learned from this and other assignments.
karlymac 