PSA: Shape yourself through self-writing online!

How do we come to understand ourselves? In Theresa Sauter’s article, “‘What’s on your mind?’ Writing on Facebook as a tool for self-formation,” she talks about how self-formation practices can help shape our perception of ourselves and establish guidelines to live by. Sauter refers to Foucault, who argues that the self is fluid, ever-changing, and intertwined with other entities.

What do diaries and status updates have in common? Self-writing is a practice of self-formation that has been around forever. Something like journal writing is fully private, allowing me to organize my thoughts with the comfort of knowing that no one will ever see what I write except for me. However, self-writing can be public, too (anyone can start a blog like this one). Foucault states that “Online self-writers… write to “show [themselves],” to project [themselves] into view, to make [their] own face appear in the other’s presence.” Philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, paraphrased by Abeba Birhane, offers a similar take, declaring that we need others in order to construct a solid self-image. Thus, social interaction and validation are necessary to our existence.

Sauter looks at self-writing on social networking sites (SNSs), and specifically Facebook status updates. Although her article was written in 2014, her arguments are still relevant today. She notes how communication styles in modern times have shifted, causing a lot of self-writing content online to become much shorter in length. I think Foucault and Bakhtin’s points can be used as an explanation here. Short pieces of writing, like status updates or Tweets, are easy for people to consume. Readers can immediately form an opinion and leave likes or comments. Sauter quotes Marwick and boyd, who note, “people are rewarded with jobs, dates, and attention for displaying themselves in an easily-consumed public way.” We are always re-shaping ourselves based on the feedback of others; we know that the faster someone can read through a post we make, the faster we can receive that feedback.

Exposed!! Reddit is a hub for advice-seeking and confessionals online, which I was reminded of when reading Sauter’s article. I used Reddit obsessively while completing university applications a couple years ago, spending hours scrolling through “Should I study Business or Arts?” and “Thoughts on School A?” threads. Platforms like Reddit allow anyone on the internet to give you advice, though this makes it hard to differentiate between the helpful and the trolls.

Asking for advice is one thing, but it surprises me that people can admit to their mistakes (and often embarrassing or serious ones at that) online among all the trolls. I think Gen Z kids especially have a tendency to overshare on social media because, growing up with screens, we’ve gotten too comfortable online. Nevertheless, self-exposure can be a good thing for people. Users can “reveal their faults to others, engage with their conduct and thus establish ways of guiding future behaviour,” according to Sauter.

A great example of this is the “Am I the Asshole?” (r/AITA) subreddit, with over 6.3 million members. Users post about a conflict they were involved in and others let them know if they were in the right or if they were, in fact, the asshole. I guess people want feedback and opinions from people who won’t just tell them what they want to hear; I can see how that brutal honesty can be valuable and refreshing. On the other hand, when we know we’re right, we might be motivated to post on a page like r/AITA to get reassurance from as many people as we can get, even strangers.

Some recent popular r/AITA posts.

Overall, regardless of the platform we write on, Sauter states that we “form relations to self and others by exposing [ourselves] to others and obtaining their feedback.” Once we know what people like about us or what we did wrong, we are able to make the corresponding changes to our lives and continuously pick out the aspects of ourselves that we want to stand out.

So… what did you think of this blog article? Asking for a friend.