This is 100% Me, Take it or Leave it!

Over the popular five or so social media outlets that people use there is always somewhere a space where people state or show who they really are. This may be in their “about me” on their Tumblr, in their about section on Facebook, or the types of things they re-pin on Pinterest. In some way most people will make it know what they are about and who they are. The thing that intrigues me is what these people, including myself, post about themselves and what they choose to post. What people post on their social media outlets is never really a whole or completely true picture of their personality because they are choosing which parts of themselves to show. I think this is true even if someone is honestly trying to describe themselves in a bio or post. This is especially true on a site like Tumblr where someone’s “about me” may not just be words that describe them like: “Hi I’m Abby. 16. Tay Swift. 1D. Tacos. My BF. The Beach. Ya I’m going to get a tattoo when I turn 18, whatta ya gonna do about it?” While looking at a bio like this I only get a shallow view of who Abby really is, a view completely controlled by Abby. In real life I can make my own judgments when I meet someone, but on the internet the person presenting themselves dictates what people know and sometimes even think of them. This shallow view of someone is harder to present because you usually know someone when you are friends on Facebook on top of the fact that photos and posts usually factor in to your judgment of someone. In a world where millions of people are on social media sites are we ever actually seeing people’s real personality? Can social media ever recreate the experience of meeting someone in person and making the judgments that you would when meeting someone in person?

The Knowledge I Gain is From a Screen, Not a Book

It is all about being published in print. Today, in a world dominated by the words we read from a screen, to be published by a large publisher in print is a sign of status. It seems that the elitists in the world written text only covet what is written on the paper in front of them. To me this is crazy because being a digital native I grew up reading from paper books and from reading off a screen. On top of this I currently read 95 percent of my assignments and pleasure readings from a screen, not a physical text.
Being someone who loves fashion, I am constantly reading reviews of shows (and I am currently doing that because it is of course New York Fashion Week right now) from my favorite designers, getting the scoop of who is doing what and keeping my knowledge of the industry growing. I do all of this reading from a computer. I even read books about fashion from a screen! I deem these writings no less creditable or scholarly than the texts I read in a newspaper or a physical book about fashion. And without the texts I source from online I would not have access to the kinds of information that I want to read about. Just last night I read the review of the Prabal Gurung show only hours after it happened. This quick and accessible text that I read kept me updated about a field I am passionate about. I didn’t care that it wasn’t from a printed source because I feel texts on paper or on a screen have the same creditability. 

Prabal Gurung Fall/Winter 2014

The age of physical texts is gradually coming to and end and it is something that society is going to have to start accepting more and more. The inevitability of physical texts being phased out, in my opinion, is imminent and the clout surrounding published texts will no longer have influence and pull on society.