Darius Ahmad
Barclay Paragraph: The True Self
Through the immensity of the online world, one can feel as if their real selves are insignificant and have an urge to change themselves to better suit the online world. But through that change in oneself, the real self and online self clash in a desperate need to discover the true self. The ideas of teenagers and social media go hand in hand. With their young minds they yearn for the ability to grow and discover the world. An ability that the internet is ready to grant them. Boyd researched the actions of teenagers in an online world, and through that research came up with an interesting point. “What teens appear to do and say on social media seems peculiar if not outright problematic.” (Boyd, 30). This point has a multitude of evidence from countless teens making questionable posts and comments on social media. Their actions on social media seem to defy the unspoken laws of interaction. They say what they want to whenever they want to say it. The problematic piece that Boyd brings up refers to the change in oneself that the internet brings upon the teenagers. They use the internet not as a source of developing who they already are, but instead to change who they are to better suit the world around them. Although, within social media that world can change completely in the simple push of the off button. When the teenagers are inevitably thrown into the real world they find themselves at a crossroad. They can either change their real self to fit their online self, deny their online selves entirely, or admit to their fake online self but sustain their real selves. In effect to the third option Greenfield accurately states that “Your online self and your “true self” are not necessarily the same.” (Greenfield 113). Depending on the use of social media the gap between the two selves differs, but teenagers constantly use social media as a platform to grow. So teenagers have widened the gap between online self and real self significantly. This struggle of choosing between an online self and a real self causes many teenagers to find themselves insignificant, and through that insignificance they search far and wide for their true selves. That true self can only be found through comparisons between what they do in social media, and what they do in their real lives.
