Cultural Effects of Personal Branding on Social Media

Personal branding is indeed fast becoming an important part of living a virtual online existence. As a matter of fact, the phrase “personal branding” is not ubiquitous a few decades ago. With the arrival of various forms of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and etc, users are encouraged “to boost social status, [as] young professionals adopt self-consciously constructed personas and market themselves, like brands or celebrities, to an audience or fan base” as quoted in Alice Marwick’s book, Status Update.

(Image Source: The Guardian)

I, myself have various Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts as I enjoy social media very much. However, I have noticed that spending a huge amount of time on social media has not only caused minor migraines as a result of staring at the computer screen for too long, but also took a toll of my mental health as I felt emotionally drained after using social media. So, today, I shall be evaluating both the positive and negative cultural effects of personal branding on social media.

Not too long ago, a news about a beautiful Australian teen, Essena O’Neill with more than 612,000 Instagram followers quit Instagram claiming social media “is not real life” (Hunt, 2015). She described it as “contrived perfection made to get attention”. Essentially, she was self-promoting herself on social media and somehow became consumed in personal branding herself so much so that she decided to delete thousands of photos “that served no real purpose other than self-promotion”.

According to Alice in Status Update, “strategic online self-presentation plays an enormous role in increasing one’s social status, how one is viewed both online and off”. Nonetheless, Essena’s “strategic presentation” of herself online was to “suck in stomachs” or to “push up boobs”. She got sick of constantly hungering for social media validation and thus, her decision to quit.

I truly admire her bravery and honesty in doing so. She has made me realized that you should not obsess over your virtual self-image. I guess it took a humongous toll on Essena’s mental health although she was paid to market products on social media.

(Image Source: Hollywood Reporter)

On the other hand, personal branding can have positive impacts on your professional career. For instance, the judges known as “sharks” on the popular national TV show Shark Tank are constantly encouraging and advising business pitchers to “personally brand” their businesses as consumers easily associate the products they wish to buy with your brand. There are so many products with similar functions. To consumers, we just want a quick solution and will buy the product with the more popular brand. Thus, earning money and gaining recognition are the perks of personal branding whether it be on social media, business companies or in your career.

In sum, I do not think personal branding is a bad or good thing, per se. However, I do agree with Llopis’s statement that personal branding is not just about self-promotion, it is a full-time commitment to the journey of defining yourself as a leader. With that said, social media should be used responsibly and appropriately to wholly optimize the personal branding building experience.

Smartphone Separation Anxiety

Sherry Turtle mentioned in her book Alone Together, both teenagers and adults alike feel a sense of anxiety and discomfort when they do not have their smartphones by their sides. You would think that you are doing yourself a massive favor by leaving your smartphone behind for dinner with the family or a formal meeting, but a new study from the University of Missouri suggests that the opposite is true. 

(Image Source: Huffington Post)

Based on the study, being separated from you [phone] can lead to physiological anxiety and poor cognitive performance. According to Russell Clayton, a doctoral candidate at the MU School of journalism and lead author of the study, says "our findings suggest that [phone] separation can negatively impact performance on mental tasks. Additionally, the results from our study suggests that [phones] are capable of becoming an extension of our selves such that when we separate, we experience a lessening of "self" and a negative physiological state." 

This is quite strange to say the least. Some might argue that this is basically a type of cell-phone addiction. However, the solution isn't exactly what you might think as suggested by USA Today: Keep your phone close when completing tasks that involve a lot of attention, or so they suggest.

Alone Together During Thanksgiving

Today marks the start of the holiday spirits. The upcoming weeks will be filled with warm family and friend reunions involving hearty foods such as turkeys with stuffing, pumpkin pies, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce and casserole. Sadly, we live in the age of the digital and technology era and these will unavoidably disrupt the holiday festivities with not only children and teenagers but also adults grappling the tiny devices in their hands instead of catching up and talking to one another. Thus, Sherry Turkle’s book, Alone Together comes into play here in the Thanksgiving scene as displayed in the below image.

(Image Source: isys6621.com)

What does it mean to be “alone” together? Basically, what Turkle is saying in her book is that although technology is constantly virtually connecting us with each other, it is difficult for us to experience alone time. I think Turkle is right in the sense that people are losing the tangibility and authenticity of genuine human interactions with the rise of technology. I agree with her that although new technology may alleviate certain anxieties but it also create new ones as well. After reading Sherry Turkle’s book, Alone Together and watching her TED Talk video, I immediately thought of the movie “I, Robot” with Will Smith in which robots take over the world as humans rely on them to accomplish their day to day activities.

Of course, I am definitely not saying that robots will take over our world in the near future just as in the movie, but I do feel that people have become quite dependent on technologies. I see people being active on their phones checking on their Facebook during Thanksgiving lunch and dinner, a period when we are supposed to relish in family gatherings.

Even though I proclaim myself to be a social media aficionado, I must say that I agree with Sherry Turkle that we hide behind these social media platforms instead of face-to-face conversations due to covering up our vulnerabilities. I can edit and control what I want to say with texting and Facebooking. However, it frightens me that in a real-time conversation, I have no control whatsoever. Therefore, the irony of “alone” together. Nonetheless, although technology has in a way, made it hard for us to be in solitude, it has definitely not annihilated human interactions. To me, technology, if used correctly and appropriately, is an incredible tool that can empower human beings.