ctrl + alt + del: Filtering Offline Identities

A painted face imitating black skin also known as "Blackface". Anonymous speech on Yik Yak. A selfie in front of a famous site. The role that social media has on college students and their experiences enrolled in an institution has become increasingly relevant and important.

The ability to publicly explore and filter what identities are shared (Alquist, 2015) via social media have a number of both positive and negative implications for students and university personnel when it comes to helping students bring congruence to their online and offline identities. In my experiences, social media has proven to be a vessel for upward mobility. It is a means to temporarily supersede identities of perceived inferiority and display one that is deemed “more desirable”. One way this is done is by controlling when, where, and how a moment is captured on social media. Both Instagram and Snapchat allow users to take pictures and videos controlling the environment and framework in which “reality” is documented and presented to the world. So what’s so wrong with that?

The intentional construction of identity on social media is a means to enhance self-image and identity (Alquist, 2015). One could argue “is this ‘real’?” I believe that for students who are seen as “less than” because they somehow “don’t fit” the dominant identity, digital identity through social media allows the opportunity for a barrier to be removed if the user so chooses. Behind a computer screen, one can only know if I am Black, or working class, or Sikh, or non-gender conforming, or transgender (insert any other minoritized identity here) ONLY if I tell them.

I believe that this temporary liberation can empower those who are often marginalized.

The problem, then, is when that temporary freedom ends because the person has to leave from behind the computer screen. The constant state of negotiation, recreation, exploring, freedom, and then return to the margins has to be exhausting. I only know because I have been there.

For student affairs professionals, the question then becomes:

How can I empower a marginalized to be bold and forward with their identities online and offline? How can I disrupt structural powers and inequities that promote continued oppression?

More importantly, is this even my responsibility? Is it wrong for me to deem their offline identity has somehow “less authentic” than their online one? Who am I to determine?

As I sit behind my computer screen now, I am stuck on how I feel and how I fit into this issue as both a student affairs professional and social media user myself.

For now, it’s an IDK.

Reference:

Alquist, J. (2015). College student digital identity development. Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/college-student-digital-identity-development-dr-josie-ahlquist