How the Real and Virtual Contribute to Self Identity
A quick way to take immediate effective action is to post on social media. There is a large audience waiting to hear about the news; it is easy and efficient in bringing mass attention to the topic; and “the police don’t have control over this story” (Deutsch, Lee). There is a greater likelihood of posted unbiased accounts of the story that are presented to the public. It is simple to update and keep the community advised consistently, and is therefore a potent virtual instrument that amplifies real world issues.
Social media serves as tool to distribute news, either nationally or personally. The social aspect of it, however, helps shape the users’ identities and the ability for the user to discover self in purpose. This allows the user to integrate his/herself into a community that unites behind similar values. The larger the group, the greater there is a sense of power and underlying importance in the issue. Therefore, as many participate and join to provide support for a cause they believe in strongly, the greater effect the virtual social media has on the real world, indicating how the real impacts the virtual as well.
Black Twitter most illustrates this topic of how real world events in a virtual space heightens real world connections. Black Twitter can be defined by three levels of connection: personal community, [which] reflects the people that you are connected with in some other dimension other than Twitter; thematic notes…where individuals specifically tweet together about certain topics, so they keep returning to this subject matter; and [the intersection of] those personal communities and the thematic notes…around a specific topic” (Clark, Ramsey). This form of twitter gives victims and supporters of the issue a community and the choice of self-selection, which allows them to participate in the conversation and assert a comment or hashtag online. Hashtag activism is direct, meaningful, and powerful (Poniewozick). It makes strong statements and creates identification amongst individuals, thus contributing to self-discovery because the user becomes someone who identifies with and believes in this social issue. This transformation gives the user self-purpose and he/she is able to relate his/her identity to this issue.
After self-selection comes affirmation, which lets other users know that the support of this online community exists and amplifies communal identities. It groups individuals into communities of individuals that they have never met before. Both self-selection and affirmation occur in the virtual, which in turn influence the real through re-affirmation and vindication. Re-affirmation is the online conversations reflected in offline, real spaces, such as with your friend. Vindication looks for change in the physical world, where individuals in the real world are affected because of the virtual conversation they may have voiced online. Kayla explains more this unifying force that exists on the online community here. As a result, social media presents that it is not a one-way relationship in which the virtual self can influence the real self or vice versa. Aspects of the virtual and real affect both versions of self because the social factor augments the real world relationships that form due to the real world events that are being discussed in the virtual space of social networking sites, in this specific case, Twitter. However, many other sites as well as other digital devices can contribute to one's rite of passage.