Who Are We Anyway? #DollyPartonChallenge

We all love a good internet challenge (or not!), from the ice bucket challenge to the mannequin challenge. However, one challenge has recently grabbed our attention- the ‘Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram and Tinder’ challenge, started by the one and only Dolly Parton. It is pretty straight forward; take your profile picture from each site and put it in a mosaic. 

A lot of people are getting involved and without this sounding like a Buzzfeed article, here are many more examples.

Linkedin: Professional

Facebook: Friendly and goofy (I hope)

Instagram: Being (or trying to be) Cool

Tinder: Mr (or Miss) Lover Lover.

Jokes aside, has social media categorised our identity?

There are over 7.5 billion people in the world. Our brain has an average of 86 billion neurons. Neurons are a way for our brain to communicate with one another, by transmitting nerve impulses. The largest section of the brain, the frontal lobe, is key in personality. Having studied postgrad Neuroscience, I learnt that our beautiful and delicate 3-pound organ has a correlation between structure and function. Projects such as the Human Connectome Project aim to map the human connections in vivo within and across individuals.

“Of course, we are continually shaped by our experiences and environment, but the fact that we see clear differences in brain structure which are linked with differences in personality traits suggests that there will almost certainly be an element of genetics involved,” says Professor Nicola Toschi from the University ‘Tor Vergata’ in Rome.

This is an important point, ~40 percent of a person's personality traits stems from inherited genes, according to Dr. David Funder, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside.

As we develop, grow and experience different things in life, our personality is moulding and being moulded. However, with 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day, we glued to the screens. Social media lets us portray the life we want to convey and the memories we want to keep, especially to the different audiences, though who are we? Is our persona on Linkedin different to Instagram? The way we write, the things we post, the things we share – are we truly one person or do we have a multiple versions of ourselves (all while comparing ourselves to others)?

Self-identity is obtained either by self-awareness and/or observations of others. Our self-identity (to some degree) is verified by the number of likes, comments or shares we get; therefore, we refine ourselves furthers to gain more likes, comments or shares, which again we compare to our persona. You get the point. It’s a vicious cycle, though this comparison existed before social media. In fact, this social comparison bias (upward and/or downward) was proposed in the early 1950’s by Leon Festinger. This is not to be confused with the self-verification bias, a social psychological theory that asserts people want to be known and understood by others according to their views. I believe that a social comparison exists for each social media site, e.g. on Linkedin we compare our careers, meanwhile on Tinder we compare how we look to others. Do you agree?

Identity classification exists within social media relative to the Big 5 personality trait (derived in the 1990s). A study by the University of Pennsylvania, showed significant differences in profile picture choice between personality traits. For example, agreeable and conscientious users display more positive emotions in their profile pictures, while users high in openness prefer more aesthetic photos. However, this classification is not as distinct as we think as there are mutual behavioural characteristics across social media traits. One’s extraversion and high level of openness can be present in multiple sites e.g. Instagram and Facebook. It is dangerous when a person tries to mask or ‘mirror’ their social groups, i.e. being more extroverted because their friends and colleagues are. This ‘chameleon effect’ may boost social media likes, comments or shares though there is evidence that may have a negative impact on wellbeing and mental health.

Over the years, it is getting harder for us to keep these profiles/identities separate, partly because there are over 200+ social media sites but also because social media has a growing presence in our lives. Interestingly, being a curated self has consequences in every sector possible, from hiring to advertising. Again, this is not new, but a concept that existed before the internet, from the details we decide to put or emit on our CV to which adverts on TV we are charmed by.

So, which came first; the chicken or the egg. In this case, our ‘versions’ always existed before social media from the friends we hang around with to the things we allow to share with others, though social media has done a good job of segregating our personas. s

What do you think?