The identity of an individual or the way in which he or she is being defined by the society around him or her, is a subjective thing and to a large extent depends on the kind of data or information which that particular individual chooses to divulge (Boyd and Crawford 2012). An interesting fact to note in this particular context is the fact that the human beings are being able to use is only around 11% and the majority of the actions taken or the ideas projected by a particular person come from this section of the human brain itself (Sunstein 2018). The advancements in the fields of science and technology have still not been able to device effective ways through which the human beings can use the subconscious part of their brain (Sunstein 2018). Furthermore, it is also seen that majority of the times the individuals do not reveal the complete information about themselves and often only fragments of the information are being revealed by them as per their own convenience or the image that they want to portray to family members, friends or others (Schwartz and Halegoua 2015). This essay will discuss about the manner in which the “data shapes meaning” or for that matter shapes the identity of a particular individual.
The rise of the various kinds of media tools and at the same the lifestyle of the characters which are being portrayed in the contemporary cinemas and other cannons have significantly impacted the manner in which a particular individual tries to portray his or her character or personality (Boyd 2014). It is a reflection of this particular fact that the individuals generally try to create a version of themselves which is not always true to the actual one of theirs but would be liked as well as appreciated by others. There are various gratifications involved in this process for example firstly there is the urge or the desire on the part of the individuals to get liked as well as appreciated by the others (Christl, Kopp and Riechert 2017). Furthermore, it is also seen that there is the desire of the individuals to lead their lives as per the standards set by the typical movies and others (Crawford, Filipovic and Hunter 2015). However, the most pertinent effect of this is the fact that the individuals often form an idea or a concept which they think is really cool and tries to mould their character or personality on the basis of that (Fang 2014). This in many cases leads to the creation of a fake identity and the individuals often lose track of their real selves or their original character.
One of the commonly used methods to analyze the identity or the personality of an individual is the search made by the concerned individual over the internet (Stryker 2012). In this particular context mention needs to be made of Spotify which is an online music listening app. It is seen that in the present times it has become a latest trend to judge or form an idea about the character or the personality of an individual on the basis of the kind of music they listen to (Morozov 2013). In this particular context, I would like to mention my own case. I generally like to listen to rock and progressive rock music and for this reason I have created a profile over Spotify which allows me to listen to some of my favorite bands like Dream Theatre, Linkin Park, Metallica and others. Thus, I was surprised to find out a few weeks ago that a friend of mine after seeing the playlist of the songs that I like to listen to formed an opinion about me that I am a bohemian kind of person and at the same time am bound to be rebellious. However, that is not at all the case on the contrary I am not at all rebellious and neither bohemian. I tried to explain this particular fact to him but he had already formed an idea about the kind of person I am and he said that it is okay since many of his friends listened to the same kind of songs and held the same time. It really perplexed me at that particular time about the manner in which a particular individual can judge the entire character of mine depending on the basis of the kind of music I generally like to listen.
In the present times, Facebook and other social media tools like Instagram, Twitter and others and the pattern in which they are being used by a particular individual are considered to be indicative of the personality or the character of a particular (Wang et al. 2017). For example, I generally find that my friends are of the viewpoint that if there are more girls in their social media profiles then profile of a guy is being reflected in the positive light and vice versa. In addition to this, the kind of status updates or the information that a particular individual wishes to share over these media tools are also indicative of the lifestyle as well as the character of the concerned individuals (Kimmons et al. 2017). I generally like to post poetry updates on my social media profiles and generally refrain from adding too much of personal details over these channels. However, a few of my friends seeing the kind of posts that I upload over the social media have come to form the opinion that I am a very reserved kind of a person and do not like to interact with others which is actually not the case. In this particular context I would like to say that the data provided by me over these social media tools or channels is being totally misinterpreted by my friends and other social media users.
Another important example of such case wherein the data provided by a particular individual is being equated with the character or the personality of that particular individual is the kind of shopping that the concerned person normally does (Chen, Vorvoreanu and Madhavan 2014). At this particular juncture I would like to mention a particular incident which would shed more light in this matter. A few months back as because the Christmas season was coming I decided to buy the gifts that I would be gifting to my family through the online shopping websites itself so as to save my time and also the physical effort needed to visit the manual stores and then buy the required gifts. In addition to this, at that particular point of time some of my family members also took the help of online shopping id and purchased some products through e-commerce. However, a few days later I received a call from the same e-commerce company and was told that since I was a regular online shopper they were willing to provide me with a membership card which would provide me with better discounts. I tried to explain them the fact that I was not at all an online shopper and the things that I have brought in the last month were just because I was busy and count not go the stores to buy them and even my family members had used the same profile to buy the required products. However, the representative kept on saying that my profile shows that I am an online shopper and I could save a significant amount of money if went for the membership card. In this particular case I would say that the purchasing record of mine was misinterpreted to form an idea that I am a regular online shopper without taking into consideration the fact that it was just a necessity at the time.
The different incidents outlined above clearly gives a misrepresentation of my actual personality or character. For example, in the above mentioned incident regarding the Spotify playlist there was clearly a misrepresentation of my personality and character on the basis of the kind of songs that I listen to. I would like to say here that the kind of songs that I listen is only a representation of the partial section of my character and not the whole one. However, an idea about my character or personality was formed on the basis of this partial information only which did not even provide an overview of my entire character. In addition to this, the data provided by my Facebook usage are misleading in the same manner since they provide only a partial overview of my character or personality. The incident of the online shopping likewise points to the same fact as only one month’s purchasing data was used to form an idea about my entire character.
I would like to say at this particular juncture that these data are not only representing only a partial section of my character but at the same time they are problematic as well since people are forming an opinion about my entire character on the basis of the partial information or data that they have. I am not saying that the data which they have is totally wrong but at the same time it is not totally right as well since they are not whole. A person’s overall character or personality cannot be judged on the basis of his or her social media usage, the kind of music he or she listens to, the shopping trends followed by them or for that matter on the basis of any singular entity of their character (Kennedy and Moss 2015). In this particular context, it needs to be said that the personality of the conglomerate of the entire behavior trends or actions followed by that particular person and also the values, beliefs and other ideas held by that particular person (Kennedy and Moss 2015). Thus, the entire personality of a particular cannot be determined on the basis of the isolated entities of their character or personality. I am at the same time of the opinion that I need to do something about the manner in which these data about me are being interpreted by others. One of the ways would obviously be to create the kind of social media profile wherein the individuals would be able to get a clear idea about myself (Ngai, Tao and Moon 2015). In addition to this, another pertinent method would be to select the kind of information that I am putting over these places in such a manner that they would not leave any space for misinterpretation.
I would like to say that taking into consideration these incidents and also the other ones I am coming across as an introvert and reserved kind of a person who does not likes to interact with the other individuals and is too self conscious which is not right. However, on the contrary I would like to say that I am an extrovert kind of a person and am not at all self conscious. Thus, I would have to selectively provide the information or data about myself over these media tools about myself and at the same time be sure that the information which I am putting over there would not be misinterpreted. This is important since it is seen that people have a tendency to form opinions or judge the personality or the character of others on the basis of the partial information that they have which is wrong. It is significant to note that the individuals form an opinion about others depending on the kind of information which is divulged by them although it is generally seen that the individuals do not reveal the complete information about themselves before anyone (Smith 2017).
To conclude, in the present times it is seen the people have a tendency to form an idea about the character or the personality of others depending on the information that they get from various sources. However, it is significant to note that in the present times the individuals do not reveal the entire information about themselves to anyone apart from the bits and fragments that are needed. Thus, the information that the individuals derive from the various online sources are just partial ones and do not tell the entire story. However, many times it is seen that an idea about the entire character or the personality of the individuals is formed depending on these partial information only which is wrong.
References:
Boyd, D. and Crawford, K., 2012. Critical questions for big data: Provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon. Information, communication & society, 15(5), pp.662-679.
Boyd, D., 2014. It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press.
Chen, X., Vorvoreanu, M. and Madhavan, K., 2014. Mining social media data for understanding students’ learning experiences. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 7(3), pp.246-259.
Christl, W., Kopp, K. and Riechert, P.U., 2017. Corporate surveillance in everyday life. Cracked Labs.
Crawford, H., Filipovic, D. and Hunter, A., 2015. All Your Friends Like This: How Social Networks Took Over News. HarperCollins.
Fang, I., 2014. Alphabet to Internet: media in our lives. Routledge.
Kennedy, H. and Moss, G., 2015. Known or knowing publics? Social media data mining and the question of public agency. Big Data & Society, 2(2), p.2053951715611145.
Kimmons, R., McGuire, K., Stauffer, M., Jones, J.E., Gregson, M. and Austin, M., 2017. Religious Identity, Expression, and Civility in Social Media: Results of Data Mining Latter?Day Saint Twitter Accounts. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 56(3), pp.637-657.
Morozov, E., 2013. To save everything, click here: The folly of technological solutionism. Public Affairs.
Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-44.
Schwartz, R. and Halegoua, G.R., 2015. The spatial self: Location-based identity performance on social media. New media & society, 17(10), pp.1643-1660.
Smith, B., 2017. Data Shadows and Digital Personae: Alienated Figures of User Identity in Social Media. The iJournal: Graduate Student Journal of the Faculty of Information, 3(1).
Stryker, C., 2012. Hacking the Future: Privacy, Identity and Anonymity on the Web. Gerald Duckworth & Co.
Sunstein, C.R., 2018. Republic: Divided democracy in the age of social media. Princeton University Press.
Wang, Y., Wu, Q., Qin, B., Shi, W., Deng, R.H. and Hu, J., 2017. Identity-based data outsourcing with comprehensive auditing in clouds. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 12(4), pp.940-952.
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