What stuck with me from this week’s readings, discussions, and Kimberly’s lovely presentation, was this notion of presenting selves. How do people present themselves on social media, in virtual communities, on Zoom…and why? Growing up in the age of Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, I find myself guilty of participating in a culture that seeks to showcase only the “good” and “desirable” aspects of everyday life; at least on Instagram, rarely does anyone ever share photos of themselves struggling, “failing” at something, or even sharing captions in which they express genuine and raw sentiments. Obviously this is a generalization, but for me there is definitely a reason why- especially now- I haven’t been posting current photos of myself or really anything at all: because I’m bored, missing my friends, at times feeling really down, and not living the life that I know is up to “Instagram standards.”

My screenwriting professor always tells us that putting our characters through a series of decisions is the best possible way to grasp and to illustrate who they are and what motivates them. Based on the choices they make- no matter how large or small- you can get a clear picture on the kind of person someone is without having to explicitly state it…and that is the driving principle of screenwriting, or of really any mainstream form of storytelling, I guess: “show, don’t tell.” Relating this back to my crude Instagram usage example, it is interesting how you can learn a lot someone based on their decisions on what to post, what to “like,” and what to “follow”- if at all. There is a lot to be said about someone’s virtual “silence” as well. This also brings me back to Prof. Himpele’s “Arrival Scenes”- what does the image you’re selling to an audience say about your intentions? It’s like that famous man/vase optical illusion where you’re able to identify an object based on its outline. In a world where public “selves” are constantly transforming and are honestly unreliable or elusive, I feel like your best bet in grasping someone’s “true identity” is to investigate the contours that shape their personhood rather than their  personhood itself…right? I’m not really sure..