Acne And Social Media: How On-line Identity Can Help
It’s an excuse not to look the woman who makes our lunchtime sandwich in the eye. The reason behind opting-out of the beautiful but low-cut dress tonight.
It’s what we use to decide if today is going to be a good day or a bad day, or whether or not we’ll accept the invitation for a drink; it even decides if we’ll speak up in the big meeting we’ve been preparing tirelessly for.
It’s embarrassing and shameful to admit, but it’s hard not to let acne in our adult years define us. It’s an isolating condition, and seems trivial to talk about- we are, after all, the same person on the inside. We’re supposed to be evolved beyond aesthetics.
Or so says anybody who doesn’t know what it is to hate what they see in the mirror.
For everybody else, it can often be infinitely easier to assert this to ourselves when we don’t have to look anybody in the eye, wondering if they’ve noticed the pustules on our chin, or the white heads near our nose.
Like, in say, a virtual world. On-line, it’s personality that counts (or the opportunity for airbrushed pores, at least.)
I’ve spent the past four months researching and writing a free eBook for download on adult acne, and over the course of conversations, interviews, and lots and lots of reading, I found common comment from sufferers of bad skin in their adult years: the creation of an online identity and Internet relationships that help many in coming to terms with a less-than-perfect offline self.
What we’re talking about is social psychology, and predominantly the social identity model of deindividuation (SIDE) theory, which focuses on the impact of anonymity in on-line interactions.
Facebook has over a billion users, Twitter reports 175 million, and Pinterest gets 25 million unique visitors a month. Between Tumblr, WordPress and Blogger there over 156 million public blogs in existence.
Almost 4,000 pictures are shared on Instagram daily. On-line dating doesn’t have the stigma it once did.
On-line social networks are vast, wide-ranging, and ultimately mean we can paint the picture of ourselves we want the world to see, using the anonymity of a computer screen to help us emphasize the characteristics we’re proud of, and minimizing those we’re not. And if it doesn’t work? We log off.
A recent Guardian article argues that deception in on-line endeavors is ‘par for the course’, an expected group behavior. We come to expect an element of creative interpretation in posts, status’, or albums- and we play along willingly.
The article suggests that is because ‘all socializing is deceptive to a greater or lesser extent, that presenting our best qualities is the same game of ego over a blog or Twitter account as it is at a friend’s dinner party or at work, but with less to lose because online we’re more anonymous.
It seems accepted that we’ll be misled, and mislead ourselves, when we create our online identities, and so typically we put little value in the ‘truth’ of what we encounter.
But it’s actually not that different from the way we socialise ‘in real life’, so using the Internet to make friends and find our confidence isn’t something to frown on.
Juwon Lee from the University of Kansas undertook a series of studies that concluded that greater usage of Facebook predicted lower satisfaction in romantic relationships- but not in friendships. Using an online profile can boost our socializing skills so that we build legitimately worthy platonic relationships through the Internet.
This might be because communicating online is less ‘on the spot’ and immediate- we have time to process the conversation. It makes us less nervous.
Jonah Berger from the University of Pennsylvania analysed over 20,000 on- and off-line conversations that found correspondence online meant participants felt like they could be more careful about what they said, taking pauses and breaks, and so crafting a more articulate conversation.
This resulted in conversations online often being more engaging and interesting compared with face-to-face musings. This seems to support Lee’s findings that it is entirely possible to engage in a worthwhile way online.
But it’s still controversial to suggest that we can find a gateway to a life online, because the way we often measure our value is different to ‘real life’.
Often in social media it’s the number of likes, retweets, or comments that we use as our metrics, but on using the Internet to feel more comfortable out in the real world it’s important to focus on meaning.
To use the Internet as a popularity contest won’t help confidence, conscience, or behavior in any positive way. Finding one person who seems to ‘get’ you, though, can be like magic on the way we feel about ourselves.
There is no replacement for real-life relationships, and so whilst many indicators suggest using social media to overcome confidence issues we might have- things like, for example, acne- online relationships should absolutely be additive, and not replace off-line interaction.
How we put together the parts of our personality in order to present the best of ourselves- for ourselves, for the way we value who we are- whether through a computer screen or over coffee, George Herbert Mead has the final word:
“The self… is essentially a social structure, and it arises in social experience.”
And for thousands of people around the globe, social media is a valid an experience as any other.
What About You?
What’s your opinion about on-line identity and social media in relation to acne?
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About The Author?
Laura Jane Williams is the writer behind free adult acne guide ACNE: A comprehensive guide to identifying, treating, and generally showing spots who the boss is, in collaboration with Court House Clinics.
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