Social Media and Manufacturing a Self Image
Channel: Meaning Is Alive
Date: 2022-04-12

The idea for this video was sparked by an idea of Krishnamurti's, where he describes the "me" that is created by thought.

Our word "profile" comes from the Latin "profilo," which meant "to draw in outline," and came from a word meant "to draw forth a line." The social media profile is like a sketch or outline of a rich and infinitely complex life. Through a compilation of selected memories, statements, photographs, group memberships, and statements of likes and dislikes, one cultivates a highly tailored image of oneself for all to see.

In this video I reflect on the way that these social media platforms entice us to pay a lot of attention to the way we construct this image. I wonder if it does not breed an addiction to controlling the image we present to others in combination with a hyper-fixation on the surface-level thoughts that make up a "profile."

If you take anything from this video, I would like you to at least come out of it feeling more mindful of whether you are resting in the surface-level thoughts and self-image, or in the true self which lies beneath all the thoughts.

What is this true self? Is it the kind of thing that can be described in words? Is it a thing at all? 

One place where I talk about this is in my recent workshop "Who Are You Really? A Semiotic Spin on Selfhood."
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJyTor9deeQ
Blog post: https://meaningisalive.blogspot.com/2021/09/who-are-you-really-semiotic-spin-on.html

---

Explore the Meaning Is Alive Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/meaningisalive

Read my work in the Philosophizing With a Hammer blog: https://meaningisalive.blogspot.com/

(Music used: "Fantasía que contrahaze la harpa en la manera de Ludovico" as performed by Sofia Asunción Claro / Tourdion as performed by Arany Zoltán. I do not own this music.)