Post Six: How your online persona influences how others perceive you.

How your online persona influences how others perceive you

Today your online persona has a huge impact on how people perceive you, especially if the person is meeting you for the first time via the internet or has not met you much in the "real world".

These days people like myself have their "main account" and also a "private account" which is particularly popular with regards to Instagram. Today our online presence is mainly held up with photographs and filtering what people see along with a short bio.

My online presence would be primarily made up of showing people my photography, music taste and books that I have read. I only post things that will show those who can see my content that I am a creative individual and share parts of my personality that are important to who I am as a human being.

There are in some ways categories of kinds of accounts people have. Basing this essay mainly off peoples Instagram accounts I know there are those who have business accounts for their product then those who have business accounts where they are the product. Then there are those who have personal accounts where they post pictures from their social lives and they all look the same. Then those who post pictures of their social lives in an "artistic" way, also dropping in some hobbies of theirs.

I feel constructing an online presence can be both inspiring to do more in life and grow but also has the potential to make us very narcissistic. Sometimes this narcissism can be evident then on your online presence. The power to control what people see of our lives can put a pressure on the subconsciousness to come across as perfect even when not online, damaging our mental health severely.

The majority of people will only show on their online presence the best parts of themselves; their most successful hobbies, best angles of their bodies and when they're at their happiest. However this stops people perceiving a full view of who you are as a human who makes mistakes, feels sad and distressed etc, like everyone else.

Something as simple as an "immature" username will give a small social cue that your personality is goofy or again immature. If you make a spelling mistake you may come across as uneducated or people might guess you have a learning disability. People can make big assumptions about a person just through their online footprint and we should be aware of how people may see us by looking at our profiles and presence in a subjective manner where the person has never met you outside of the screen.
This may become important when being considered for a job. I think it's important for people to approach their social media in a business like manner such as branding their social media. This is only important for those who plan on building a business for themselves and if their public image is important in advertising their product. Personal accounts can allow for fun and your true personality to shine but they are probably best left personal and not for everyone to be witness to, as people can make wrong assumptions when they haven't met you in person.