Post 1: How has the media shaped the pursue of our self image?

“Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if i like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody else.” Lewis Carroll penned those words back in “Alice in Wonderland” in 1865 before we even knew centuries later that “double identities” or “second life” would be widely used.

Through the evolution of technology, Facebook emerged as a new trend of networking platform to showcase our telepresence. No doubt it’s a richer way of representing ourselves through many of its unique functions such as photo sharing and more. “Our identity is a complex personal and social construct” (Shiao Yin Kuik, 2010, p.12). Indeed, people don’t just form their identity through their personal perception, but also from how other people respond and see them. Through Facebook, people learn to construct their own identity and also receive feedback, as if a check point for their self actualisation.

The increasing representation of beauty and success through media’s presentation of public figures like models and pop stars seems to have a certain impact on people’s pursued self image as well. Some people tend to see beauty and fashion as a key to success and prominence as derived from certain public figures. An almost irrational thought it may seems, but some generalise success and attraction to almost just visual image. Hence, these people start to pursue their dream image by mimicking the figures as presented by media. This certainly for some reason affects self actualisation to not just superficial, but also causes people to lose authenticity in character.  But for some who balance a healthy self image, this could be a stepping stone to further self actualise, where they see beauty as not just solely the main factor for success.

At the end of the day, are we forming a facade of a flippant self image and an inauthentic pursue of our self actualisation? Or perhaps, media has helped us to gain further insights into maximising our fullest self potential to self actualise?

Resources

Shiao Yin Kuik (2010). Through the looking glass. Will Facebook change the way we see ourselves? (pp. 10-15). Singapore: School of Thought.