Technology plays a significant role in the creation, maintenance, and dissolution of social relations. Something most of us can relate to is the presentation of the self-online. Most of us post on social media such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and etc. But some of us pst what we want people to see. Virtual self is contrasted with the in real life (IRL), self, describes the creation of a self through posts, pictures, etc. on the Internet, particularly social media sites. 

For example, Instagram. Some of us are careful with what we post online. If it’s a picture of ourselves, we would want to look nice, maybe edit the picture by removing pimples you don’t want people to see or adding a filter on top of the original photo. Some of us also care about the theme of our Instagram page, but then there are other people who don’t care and post whatever they want. Personally, my Instagram has a theme (video above). The reason I chose to have a theme is because it’s consistent and aesthetically pleasing. This goes the same for other people. 

Groffman (1959) referred tot he presentation of the self in private space as a person’s backstage and the public expression of self as the frontstage. This is important for understanding users’ decisions as to what to post. For users, social media is their frontstage and it’s there that they accordingly present their most desirable elements of the self. This doesn’t mean that they are a different person in real life or online, the frontstage is there to hide anything that might be personal to that person and they don’t want other people knowing about it. 

Do you care about what you post online?