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8-30-2016

Twitter and Identity: Living up to the Social

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Mark Ramelb
8/30/16
Twitter and Identity:
Living up to the Social Comparison
Throughout this millennial age, technology continues to develop. Every day new

technology such as computers and laptops have new applications that affect our society. Humans

live in the era known as the digital revolution. The digital revolution is where people are

constantly using the internet, more specifically, social media applications on their computer or

mobile devices. Nick Lalone, author of "Fluctuations, Technologies And Media: Social Change

And Sociology Change” states “that the technological makeup sits at the foundation of computer-

mediated communication has had tremendous impact on society itself the technological makeup”

(Lalone 559). In other words, humans interacting with each other through words is not the

primary form of communication. Technology has influenced how we represent our thoughts and

personalities to society.

With the advancement in technology comes the ability to create a new self, a new image,

a new representation, which is ultimately a new identity. Similar to what Nick Lalone states

“communication is changing rapidly”, which is true because the new technology changes how

we form an identity online. Individuals often construct an identity based on how their cultural

influences and external influences. Individuals will use technology as a platform to express their

identity. People who often view the individuals using the social media applications to express

themselves will get a better understanding of who the individual is. Because technology has

increased vastly, people have made technology and applications that involve the concept known

as social media.
 Social media is defined as the collective of online communications channels dedicated to

community based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. In today’s society, social

media applications such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are being used because it is another

world for them. It gives them a chance to escape from reality and enter a virtual world. In reality,

there are certain things one cannot express because it may not be justified. Or perhaps it is a

thought they do not feel comfortable sharing. But when individuals use social media

applications, it allows one to build an identity because creating an identity online allows one to

portray his or herself in a different fashion.

Foremost, it is important to understand how social media affects who we are. Erin Vogel,

author of “Social Comparison, Social Media, And Self-Esteem” explains how social media sites

allow users to construct electronic profiles for themselves, provide details about their lives and

experiences, post pictures, maintain relationships, plan social events, meet new people, make

observations of others’ lives, fulfill belongingness needs, and express their beliefs, preferences,

and emotions” (Vogel 206). The quotation by Vogel is a representation of how people use social

media to create an identity for themselves, but it has a deeper meaning. The key word in the

quotation is s

“fulfill belongingness” because people will often express themselves on social media to construct

an identity based on the audience they are attempting to target.

Primarily, I want to expand on Vogel by looking at a form of social media known as

Twitter. I want to look at various accounts on Twitter and examine how their tweets allow them

to construct an identity based on the audience they are targeting. Twitter is a social networking

and microblogging service where users post things about their daily known as “tweets”. Tweets

are often a form of expression and allow one to tweet whatever is on his or her mind. Usually,
the tweets that appear are often an expression of an individual’s own thought. But every thought

has a purpose, and usually they are different objectives that a person who is tweeting is

attempting to accomplish. Focusing on the twitter accounts, I will be able to see that each

account comes from a different background and has a different perspective. I will look at the

Twitter accounts of celebrities, politicians, and average people. By examining these twitter

accounts, we can not only gain a better understanding of their identity, but how the tweets are

targeting an audience.

Based on the audience they can target, we can see how individuals will tweet and crate a

fake self because they start to express themselves and build themselves based on their self-

esteem. It is simple that an individual’s tweets are a reflection of one’s identity, but it is

important to realize by looking at specific words throughout the tweet, we can get a better

understanding of who they are. To go even further, we will understand that their tweets are

targeting certain audiences because they want to build their brand and attract people’s attention.

Attention is a key word for this argument because we know that by making controversial

tweets, it will attract people attention and build their brand further because they will gain an

audience. Twitter users create an identity through their tweets that reflects a brand they

constructed of themselves. This brand may be personal, reflecting an emotional or mental state

that an average individual wants their friends and family to see, or it may target a consumer

audience for a well known party. In the end of this paper, I hope that you all will get a better

understanding of the relationship between identity and Twitter on a deeper extent. There is more

purpose to Twitter than just expression, there is an underlying meaning to an individuals tweets.

Thus, identity building on Twitter is not about accurately representing one’s true self, but about
representing who you want to be or aspire to be. So people create a Twitter account and tweet to

a specific audience whether it is a brand, community, or life.

Definition of Identity

Foremost, it is important to understand concepts and definitions that help us better

understand how it relates to social media, in this case, Twitter. Beginning with identity, identity

is defined as “the condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is; the qualities,

beliefs, etc, that distinguish or identify a person or thing.” Identity is defined as “the condition or

character as to who a person or what a thing is; the qualities, beliefs, etc, that distinguish or

identify a person or thing”. This is important because we see how an individual’s makeup can

consist of a multitude of factors based on the definition. Key words such as qualities or identify

show that there are external influences that play a part in crafting one’s identity. This is essential

when it comes to social media because my argument is to relate social media, more specifically,

twitter to identity. From there understand that there is a need to build one’s identity based on the

audience they are targeting.

Social Media: The Beginning and History

Identity has been explained, but it is more important to see the role that social media

plays in identity. Since the 2000s, the upward trend towards using social media applications

began to form. For example, Myspace, one of the first social media sites, is an application that

many people use to express their own thoughts, ideas, pictures, etc. This form of social media is

a perfect example of how people used it to express their identity, based on the audience they

wanted to target. As a result, individuals would be constructing their own identity and having a

fake-self. During the individuals were using Myspace, it allowed people to at a young age to

express themselves which often formed an identity. These expressions allowed individuals to
have an online identity; however, the online identity would be constructed based on the audience

an individual was targeting. Before I can dive into Twitter and explain the connection, it is

important to understand the theory behind this. By understanding the theory, it will build the

framework for the argument I will address later.

The Theory Behind It

Why is it that people who go online and use these social applications are constantly

expressing themselves. There is purpose behind these tweets and it can be related to the theory

known as the social identity theory. In order to explain the theory, there is an article written by

Dorothy Schmalz known as “Social Media Sites As A Means Of Coping With A Threatened

Social Identity”. The paper begins by talking about the social identity theory, and that

individuals are motivated by a need for high self-esteem and being tied to a social group fulfills

this need. This theory is connected to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where

social media sites is used to develop friendships and build one’s self.

The author identifies a user that shares a connection offline but do not know each other as

“latent-ties” (Schmalz 23). It is almost as individuals who do not know their friend group as well

or want to gain more value in society have social media sites to do that for them. The author

states any individual can have multiple social identities. This article is a primary example of how

social media sites are related to identity, and that there is data that exists which exemplify the

correlation between the two.

Therefore, I am not saying that people who use Twitter mostly have self-esteem

problems, but I am arguing that there is a relationship between identity and social media. People

who will use the social media will construct an identity based on who they are, their

environments, social standings, etc. It will allow them to develop an identity for themselves and
give the opportunity to express how they truly feel, which will show what their real identity is.

As a result, they will create an identity to target a certain audience in order to build their

reputation. But, it is as if they creating a fake self, a new representation of themselves because

their identity is not real, it is virtual.

Hashtag Tweet Example

To further explain the identity and social media concept , there is an article written by

Emily Lewis called "Humor And Identity On Twitter: #Muslimcandyheartrejects As A Digital

Space For Identity Construction.” The article examines how the hashtag that was tweeted states

#muslimcandyheartrejects and that Muslim digital diaspora communities use social media to

construct and reinforce a Muslim diaspora identity. The author states “Twitter creates the ability

for such a temporary conversation to appear and develop, and its specific architecture allow for a

variety of forms of participation” (Lewis 33). The author talks about what a hashtag is, etc.

People who shared the same hashtag or were posting it, could create an identity. The author goes

on to explain how it build a community and that those who use humor and can affiliate with

orders helped them create an identity within that an online community. By looking at this source,

we understand the significance the tweets hold, and that Twitter is being used as a social space,

and being able to define themselves based on the tweet gives them a sense of identity.

An example of a #muslimcandyheartrejects is a Tweet that comes from Heeba Sorsour

which states #muslimcandyheartrejects I now have 90 twitter followers does that make me

promiscuous and non marriage material? LOL.” This tweet is a perfect example of how she is

trying to represent herself online as entertaining while at the same time making fun of her own

traditions and culture. This is something she would not do in person based on culture, but by

Tweeting it allowed her to express herself to a targeted audience, a collective community. By

is targeting a certain audience based on her tweet. From this, we can see how many people went

online to represent her identity which is over 200-300 and we can see how important this hashtag

is for their culture as they continue to develop their identity.

Twitter Account 1: Kanye West

Twitter is a representation of one’s identity based on the tweets and further the tweets

allow one to construct a self based on who they want to be. First, Kanye West, who is a very

popular hip hop singer has some controversial tweets that are a representation of who he is.

Kanye West has been known for doing controversial things such as the Taylor Swift situation.

He went on stage when Taylor Swift won an award and said that Beyonce should have won the

ward. It is important to provide some context so I have an idea of who he is and what the tweets

say about himself. From there, we see how celebrities will tweet controversial statements in

order to build their brand and make them have a greater sense of worth within the community.

Beginning with one of his tweets, we can get a sense of his identity and the audience he is

targeting. The tweet states “maybe I couldn’t be skinny and tall but I’ll settle for being the

greatest of all time as a consolation.” This tweet is a representation of who Kanye West is as a

music artist, he is very confident and cocky because he defines himself as the “greatest of all

time”. This shows that Kanye West does not care about what other people think or will say about

him, he can express how he really feels about himself and this shows identity to the public. From

there, he is able to build his self-esteem and brand, which feeds his ego and make him who he is

today. That is what twitter has done for celebrities because by writing a tweet such as this, it will

make people hate him or appreciate him, but it will build himself up. Moe importantly we can

see how Kanye is tweeting to target an audience, build his brand, and represent himself in a
fashion that he would not expose directly to people. His tweets allow him to construct an identity

based on the audience he talks too, not just he’s skinny. But that he has the power to tweet

anything he wants because the audience he is targeting shows how powerful Twitter can be

online.

Another tweet that Kanye West states is “I’d rather teachers got paid more and books cost

less.” Again, we see how controversial this tweet is because Kanye West is an artist, not a person

who will speak his mind on education. Once again, Twitter is a public platform and he has no

fear in expressing how he feels about education. We understand that he is tweeting something

controversial in order to target a certain audience, the audience is the whole Twitter community.

Because he knows that his tweets will make him more popular and attract him more followers

and retweets, which will build his self-identity and worth up. What is amazing about Twitter is

how people can talk about things they believe in and stand for, but they will never say in public.

Twitter gives Kanye West the opportunity to speak about a subject he is not familiar with and

from this we can see how he is addressing a multitude of topics government spending, teacher

salary, and the cost of books. Thus, these are some examples of tweets that Kanye West has

addressed and from his tweets we get an idea of who he is and how his tweets attract more

people to follow him and build his worth within the world.

Twitter Account 2: Donald Trump

So Kanye’s tweets show his identity, Like Kanye, Trump’s tweets relate to his strong ego

as well, but his tweets define his identity by targeting a political audience. Everyone knows

Donald trump for being a billionaire and for being the upcoming person to run for president. He

has written some controversial tweets that allowed him to construct an identity to target an

audience. The tweet states “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she
can’t satisfy America.” Looking at this tweet, Donald Trump is seen as very cocky and confident

person as well, but we can see that he is targeting her personally in order to create controversy.

By creating controversy, it will build his brand and make him more recognized politically. From

this, we get a better understanding of his identity and the values he upholds. Once again, this

proves that celebrities will make controversial tweets so they will have a different identity, a new

self, in order to build themselves within society.

Trump’s tweet shows that he is very egotistical and we understand who he is as a person.

Another tweet that demonstrates Donald Trump personality is when he stated “Sorry losers and

haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or

insecure, it is not your fault.” The tweet is another representation of how Donald Trump is using

twitter to construct an identity that will target audiences in order to build his brand. He is

showing that he is successful, smart, and has a lot of power. He has a lot of power to tweet

something like that and that it shows that social media plays a prevalent role in his life. By

tweeting, and creating an identity as being that makes him egotistical, he will only attract more

users and followers and build himself more within the world. Thus, Twitter allows one to portray

a broader portion of their personality and the tweets by Donald Trump prove so.

Twitter Account 3: Kim Kardashian

Similar to Kanye and Trump, Kim Kardashian tweets represent her identity and how she

is marketing herself to target an audience. She happens to be one of the most iconic figures

within the world and is known for the show “Keeping up with the Kardashians”. Again, Kim

Kardashian will be demonstrate a tweet like another celebrity would do, which is attracting

attention in order to build herself up. In the tweet, she states “I never thought I would ever say

this… But I’m wearing flats today.” This tweet has meaning to demonstrate the relationship
between building one’s self online in order to target an audience and build her brand. A simple

tweet such as this shows how she is writing a tweet in order to attract other people towards her.

In the tweet, over 1,752 retweeted and 2,457 liked it, which means that she knows she can tweet

anything on her mind and she knows it will build herself a bigger online presence and identity on

Twitter. From this, we can see again that tweets will represent one’s identity, we can see that she

likes the attention and that she is very high maintenance, but we can also see that she is crafting

her identity so people will follow her, just as Kanye West and Donald Trump did.

Twitter Account 4: Anonymous User

The last twitter account that I wanted to talk about is my friend who goes to college. He

is a college student and by presenting a normal user tweet, we can get a understanding of who his

identity is. His Twitter states “Update: both presentations went well” and a couple minutes later

“Please pray for me”. Based off these two tweets, we can see how much he can be attention

needed and that he wants to always let users know what is happening in his life. Simple, subtle

things such as analyzing a tweet give us an idea of how tweets and identity are related to one

another. More importantly, this is another a celebrity, but a normal user, and we can see how his

tweet is targeting an audience so it will build himself up within the community. Often normal

users, who use Twitter frequently will tweet something because it will build their self-esteem.

Andre Karle, author of “Review Of Digital Youth: The Role Of Media In Development” shows

that youth integrate media into their lives. This article is applicable to my friends Twitter account

because she states that Internet and anonymity are intertwined with one another. By having an

online presence, you can establish a distinct persona on the Internet separate from what you are

in reality. Based on this account, this also demonstrates the study by Nihan Ozguven, which is on

the relationship between personality and social media use. The fact is there has been a change in
communication due to social media websites and that there is a relationship between the two.

From this study, we get a better understanding that Twitter is representing one’s identity, but

using Twitter as a platform for online communication allows us to change who we are.

Discussion

Obviously, the tweets demonstrate how the tweet can reveal a lot about oneselves

because the tweets are targeted to a certain audience in order to craft their online identity

however they chose to do so. Jennifer Golbeck wrote an article “Predicting Personality From

Twitter”. The author begins by stating that users reveal a lot about themselves both in what they

share and how they say it. Similar to Kanye West, Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, and the

anonymous user, it happened to reveal a lot about themselves based on their tweets. From their

tweets we can understand that personality can be predicted based off what a person tweets about,

The words one states can reveal about the personality, in more subtle ways than we imagine.

Similar to the celebrities and to the anonymous user, the tweets allow users to discover who they

are as people.

All the celebrities tweets mentioned above is a representation of branding. They do an

excellent job in explaining their brand. An article titled “Following Celebrities’ Tweets About

Brands: The Impact Of Twitter-Based Electronic Word-Of-Mouth On Consumers’ Source

Credibility Perception, Buying Intention, And Social Identification With Celebrities” shows how

people are using social media sites to increase their brand. The celebrities most certainly used

social media as a platform to market themselves. Their tweet did not just represent who they are

but it allowed them to create a different version of themselves online in order to cater to a certain

network or audience.
 In the United States, Twitter has been adopted as the social media site du jour for

celebrities, athletes, and politicians. Joe Phua states “the more followers one garners on Twitter,

the greater perceived social influence one has” (Phua 182). It is amazing to think that Twitter

can be utilized as a form of social capital. Tweets are broadcasted to each and every follower,

who may then retweet these posts on their own profiles, which reaches other members as well.

What is amazing about this article is that it talks about how individuals get access to celebrities

twitter, which is a social resource in helping them build their identity. Once again, there is

evidence to show that Kanye, Trump, Kardashian, and the anonymous users tweets have all a

significant influence on one’s identity.

By understanding the importance of tweets, we can understand how anyone can market

themselves online and crate any image they want. Nicole Kramer, author of "Impression

Management 2.0: The Relationship Of Self-Esteem, Extraversion, Self-Efficacy, And Self-

Presentation Within Social Networking Sites” states “nowadays anyone can appear in the media

and broadcast himself or herself to the globalized world. Tweets allow users to brand themselves

in any possible way” (Kramer 106) . There are opportunities for people to present themselves,

their pictures, their videos, etc. Being on these social networking sites allow users to present

himself or herself in a profile with personal information and they have control over their self-

presentational behavior. This provides an ideal setting for impressing others. By creating online

self-presentations, users have the opportunity to think about what aspects of their personalities

should be presented.

In conclusion, I wanted to show that there is a correlation between an individuals tweets

and their identity. From the evidence that I have presented above, we can see that this is fairly

true. But to a deeper extent, I have expressed that people who tweet are not just doing it to create
an online identity, but to build their online identity and market themselves further. Hongladarom,

author of “Personal Identity And The Self In The Online And Offline World” states “social

networking sites seem to emerge a new kind of self in the online world” (Hongladarom 534).

This is evident as demonstrated by the various twitter accounts I have provided above and that

individuals can create the persona the way he or she likes. I hope that by understanding what I

have explained that we can start to realize the influence social media and pop culture has in

society. As Twitter continues to grow and expand, it will keep give researchers better ways of

understanding who they are as individuals.

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Impact Of Twitter-Based Electronic Word-Of-Mouth On Consumers’ Source Credibility
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PsycINFO. Web. 24 Aug. 2016.
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Aug. 2016.
West, Kanye. “Maybe I couldn’t be skinny and tall but I’ll settle for being the greatest of
all time as a consolation.” 27 Jan 2016. 2:27 p.m. Tweet.
West, Kanye. “I’d rather teachers got paid more and books cost less.” 16 Feb 2016. 11:09
a.m. Tweet.
Trump, Donald. “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she
can’t satisfy America.” 16 Apr 2015. 8:22 p.m. Tweet.
Trump, Donald. “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest and you all
know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it is not your fault.” Tweet.
 Kardhasian, Kim. “I never thought I would ever say this… But I’m wearing flats today.”
25 Mar 2013. 5:37 a.m. Tweet.
Anonymous. “Update: both presentations went well. “ 11 Aug 2016. 4:23 p.m. Tweet.