Social Media Personas vs Real-Life Behavior

1528 Words4 Pages

Twitter use involves special factors that create a unique psychological environment for the user. Amichai-Hamburger (2007) believed that with the help of Twitter people could easily maintain their anonymity by making multiple accounts. In fact, users can choose a false name and falsify or hide other personal and identifying details. Turkle’s (2002) theory that people under secrecy tend to express themselves more freely and sincerely than they would in a face-to-face interaction since they are not subject to the usual social rules and norms. This theory sheds insight on the problem of online interaction. Correspondingly, anonymity may also encourage people to explore different aspects of their identity in a way that is not possible or sanctioned according to traditional social rules and norms (Turkle, 1995).

Twitter makes physcial appearance in the social interaction limited. (Amichai-Hamburger, 2007). Cialdani (1984) suggested that attractive people have an enormous social advantage, they are better liked, more frequently helped and see as possessing better personality traits and intellectual capabilities or better known as the “halo effect”. Just as the halo effect plays in favor of the physically attractive, the reverse is true for people who are physically unappealing or what is called the “horns effect”. In fact Hatfield and Spreecher (1986) argued that the first physical impression is likely to set the course for the rest of the interaction. Conversely, a typical Twitter interaction is solely text-based, the physical characteristics of the participants remain undisclosed which would be significant for people with unsightly or unattractive physical characteristics who are likely to suffer from discrimination in a face-to-...

... middle of paper ...

...
Changizi, M. (2010). Multiple personality social media. Retrieved from science 20 website: http://www.science20.com/mark_changizi/multiple_personality_social_media

Gilley, J. (2013). Can’t we all just get along: Social media profiles. Retrieved from Copy Press website: http://www.copypress.com/blog/cant-we-all-just-get-along-social-media-profiles/

Millan, M. (2010). Surprise: The Twitter me is not the real me. Retrieved from the LA Times website: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/14/business/la-fi-twitter-20100514

Tracy, S. (2011). How many personas do you maintain online (and why). Retrieved from Freelance Folder website: http://freelancefolder.com/how-many-personas-do-you-maintain-online-and-why/

Whitney, L. (2010) “Twitter, Facebook Use up 82 Percent,” Retrieved from Cnet news Online: http://news. cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10457480-93.html?tag=mncol;posts

Open Document