I like seeking Easter eggs about Spider-man- No Way Home on Instagram. Will Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire make an appearance? I like over-dramatic Kafkaesque excerpts, Ghibli movies lunchboxes which I will never make and keeping tabs on Taylor Swift.
But none of these or melodramatic anime OSTs makes it to my main account. My account is tarnished with synchronised posts, similar themes and stories of “importance”. Am I keeping a pretentious image? Can’t I be both at once, at all capacities?
Fear Of Oversharing
Occasionally, social media creates an internalized pressure on me to take a stand on every socio-political issue. I tend to write my opinion and universalize the cause. But afterward, I feel conscious sharing Sheldon Cooper’s bazinga meme. Does it trivialize my previous cause? Do my followers judge when I add the song “21 Guns” to a silly birthday post?
My other account has no followers. My alter-ego has champagnes with fritters scrolling at the weirdest conspiracy theories or trashy “unproductive” posts. But it gives me an identity crisis from time to time. If you are afraid of presenting your totalitarian image just like me, I want to reassure you that you are not fake.
Also Read: Back In Time: 17 Years Ago Today, Zuckerberg Launched The Infamous Social Media Platform, Facebook
The Tendency Of Deleting Posts
Sometimes, I do share stories but I tend to delete them after being “seen” for a few hours. The idea of being seen at my rawest essence makes me anxious. Stories can at least be deleted within twenty-four hours, the temporality provides me relief.
The posts on the feed act as a statement of your personality. But what can my personality be when I only show a singular part of myself? Many do not think they have the charisma of being the main character of their lives. Many are wrapped in existential crisis and interplay of influence from the societal environment. What can be the statement of feed for us?
The fear of oversharing my wounds, laughter and nothingness preside over me. I let the inconsistencies of my emotions take over me. I like writing long captions with references to things I read or never-ending anecdotes.
I once got called out for my hyper “gyans”, and some other time, someone said to me, “You call this music?” I contest their arguments and hide them from seeing my stories.
But still, it lingers upon me, do I overshare? Am I like an open book or just gullible in the eyes of these people? Why do I need to have the necessity to hide? As Margaret Atwood said in The Handmaid’s Tale, “Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”
Where Can We Find Balance?
I think maybe removing those people who makes you second guess your choice might provide a free space for you to express yourself. In the age of social media, we like to communicate and expand our base.
But what is the purpose if we can’t have solace with our actions? Social media acts as a break from the hustle culture of modern lives, it is also the space where we reclaim our identities.
Feminista Jones’ book, Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets talks about how social media acts both as a change and your voice. You can decide to talk about Tarak Mehta ka Ulta Chashma or Ambedkar, you can talk about Timothe Chalamat or Bangchan, you can share everything and also nothing.
It is absolutely fine to be private about certain interests, leading two lives at once. There will always be an alternative option of hiding people, posting stories for selective people or not replying to the impertinence of some followers.
But choose whatever suits you and embraces you like the November sun. Maybe someday the forces of our youth will be okay to be not anxious about our little actions.
In hindsight, do you really think I shared the tastes in this blog when I could not post within the limited audience of my Instagram account? Am I still keeping an image in the public domain?
Comment down below what you think of having two or more social media accounts?
Image Credits: Google Photos
Source: Author’s own opinions
Find The Blogger: @debanjalidas15
This post is tagged under: social media, Instagram, Millenials, Gen Z, Twitter, Facebook, Anxiousness, students, youth, India, Tarak Mehta, Feminista Jones, The Handmaids Tale, fake accounts, oversharing, overthinking, anxiety, how to use social media, spider-man, no way home, tom, Taylor Swift, all too well, red album, manchester united, Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma.
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