Читать книгу The Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 162

According to a 2016 Nielsen report, Americans spend almost 11 hours a day in front of a screen—a PC, a tablet, a smartphone, a TV, or other.⁶⁶ According to the Pew Research Center, 21% of us are online seemingly constantly.⁶⁷ But what are we really learning? And how is all that time devoted to “screens” affecting how we look at ourselves? What kind of online presences are we building? After all, in many ways, building a social media presence is akin to building a brand.⁶⁸ Focused on self-promotion, research reveals that we try to put our best digital foot forward when using social media.

For example, we use our Facebook and Instagram accounts to create and present others with the most positive version or persona of ourselves possible. Selfies, often digitally enhanced, help us accomplish this. Our posts imply that our lives are more fun-filled and exciting than they actually are. Whereas for some individuals this offers a psychological ego boost, for others it actually becomes anxiety producing. According to theorists, instead of allowing the self to develop internally, it is now being externally manufactured and virtually packaged in our effort to influence others’ views of us.

Effectively, we play to audiences when using social media, working to create a self that others will respond to positively.⁶⁹ We also tend to perceive and interact differently when we relate to people online and not face to face. In effect, the Internet allows us to facilitate perceptual revisions of ourselves.⁷⁰ If others approve of the way we present ourselves, they will encourage its continuation. If, however, they believe we are trying to present ourselves as someone whom we are not, then they will judge us to be untrustworthy and not credible.⁷¹