Presenting an Ideal Self on Social Media

The Self-Knowledge Process Essay
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Social media platforms are widely used for sharing, co-creating, discussing, and modifying user-generated content. Social comparison and self-presentation on social media sites is an area that warrants research to understand how other people's reactions to them in online and offline interactions influence their behavior and self-concept. Social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, are widely used platforms for social connection and self-knowledge creation. There is increased pressure to present the best version of oneself via social media platforms to seek approval and meet social expectations online. Other people's reactions to our online content constitute a significant source of self-knowledge, idealized presentation, as well as social feedback based on supposedly admirable attributes. This paper examines the implications of the need to present the best version of the self on social media on self-observation, introspection, and other individuals' self-awareness reactions. In addition, it includes the impact of failing to gain crucial information for self-concept development on one's confidence levels. Moreover, the paper considers information I have unsuccessfully wanted to obtain from others on social media platforms.
Presenting the Ideal Version of Self on Social Media and Implications
The pressure to present the ideal self on social media platforms affects how people use introspection as well as self-observation. Traditionally, introspection is defined as a privileged approach to developing beliefs concerning one's observable psychological states as well as the perspective that it is different from non-introspective belief system process dynamics both epistemically and psychologically (Caporusico, 2021). Self-observation is a kind of introspection that enables people to address a mental phenomenon that is not easy to observe based on traditional third-person observation techniques. Introspection can be conceived as a kind of self-observation where the individual reports their subjective thought processes and feelings. The need to present an ideal self via social media affects an individual's self-observation and introspection by driving them to consciously compare themselves with other users, particularly in unhealthy ways. According to social cognitive theory, observing others' experiences influences self-observation and introspection, leading to social media use expectations. Individuals' mental processes are likely to drive them to follow others' behavior, thus the tendency to compare themselves with and impress other social media users (Kocabiyik, 2021). This creates expectations where an individual feels the need to organize and demonstrate a specific behavior in order to deal with online life discontent.
The pressure to present the best self on social media impacts other people's reactions to knowing themselves via self-esteem development and social influence. Other people can base their self-concept on other social media users' impressions. Some users are likely to hide or masquerade their authentic selves for various reasons, including privacy concerns, which could authenticate other ...