Today, more and more people (especially, the younger population) are being influenced by social media. People spend more time socializing using the communication channel of the 21st century. Add photos and tag each other on them, upload videos, write their opinions, minds and feelings, and moreover, put a lot of private information into their social media profiles.
What pushes people to share all that information with the Web? Desire to belong to online community? Desire to get noticed by other residents of social media? Or simply lack of time and resources (geographical constraints) to have a “real-life” communication with friends and acquaintances?
Speaking my own social media experience, I can truly say that some people are there just because they lack the communication in their real lives – they are too shy to be socialized and to express themselves among people, they are introverts, who simply want to be by their own without any disruption from the outside world. Such kind of people tend to behave more active online compared to their more sociable counterparts. They have found their own inner value in the social media world – they express themselves more freely in online community, and when you have online conversations with them, or simply go to their profile page, something interesting comes to your eyes – the thing you have missed before.
I used to observe a great amount of wise and value-based quotations on the profile pages of such people, however, I have never noticed such wisdom or strong personal characteristics in that people in our everyday communication. It seems like these people are those who have bright and at the same time sensitive inner world, which they are hard to express in offline life.
At the same time, people tend to have different personalities in online and offline life, because some try to make false impression on people either online, or in real life, using different psychological and manipulating techniques. They try to get in better face in front of the big audience, however, they are empty inside. They try to behave in ethical manner in the people environment, however, do not even share most of these ethical values. They try to look confident, when there is a real fight and scare inside of them. They try to look rational and strategic, when emotions and feeling are shouting inside...
Sometimes, even I catch myself on the feeling that I am becoming some kind of fake, not what I actually am inside, nor who I want to be... I try to be strong, when in reality I just want to forget about all outside problems, skip away from this strange and more fake than real world. I push myself to speak, loudly and confidently, with smile on my face, switching my charisma on the highest levels possible, but... inside I just want to be along and reflect upon my inner values, in order to come back to my true life path... without any disruption from people with negative thoughts, from those who are too pessimistic or the ones too selfish...
This is real life – when you always need to wear best of your smiles, be better than others, constantly achieve your objectives and plans, make plans for future and set new goals and objectives... - look like a rat race, when you achieve more and more goals, but they do not make you happy anymore... They do not generate sincere smile on your face, but only add one tick in the TO DO LIST...
However, in social media, you can share whatever you want – your sad feelings or soul treasures... and there are some friends there, whom you rarely meet in the street or cafeteria, but who always support you online, inspire you for new achievements, understand you, give valuable advice and just listen to your problems and fears... Such people make you locked to the social media... to powerful online community... to the people you would never even notice in your real life, but whom you value online....