On Individualism

deletedmemberal

Has the preservation of the individual corrupted our way of thinking and engaging with each other? Take for example social media. One only showcases their best, no flaws whatsoever. By focusing solely on our best, are we feeding ourselves a false narrative? Even worse, are we believing it?

I ran a small poll in which I asked participants whether social media profiles represent fake selves, in which the overwhelming answer was yes. The following question was whether they represented their true self on their profiles, to which many positive answers came from the same people that had previously voted that social media profiles portray fake personalities.

How and why has this discrepancy formed? Why do individuals think of themselves as real while the rest are deemed to be fake? Are they even aware that they are doing this in the first place?

Nils Loc

I ran a small poll in which I asked participants wether social media profiles represent fake selves, in which the overwhelming answer was yes. — Alejandro

Well, even outside of presenting oneself on social media platforms we mediate our performance all the time to achieve desired ends. Work requires that we act in a certain way, which maybe at odds with an innate tendency in expressing oneself. Folks working in social media surely are curating how they appear based on what is known to draw attention.

Maybe it was Freud who originally explained mental illness and psychological distress as the conflict between innate drives and social demands. It takes a lot of energy to follow rules.

Suppose an authentic self is actually rather repugnant or immoral, or sans the shaping influence of a community, empty (a man without an audience is not a man).

deletedmemberal

↪Nils Loc

Are you saying that we validate our existence by receiving attention from other people?

Pfhorrest

I ran a small poll in which I asked participants wether social media profiles represent fake selves, in which the overwhelming answer was yes. The following question was whether they represented their true selve on their profiles, to which many positive answers came from the same people that had previously voted that social media profiles portray fake personalities. — Alejandro

I wonder if (and suspect that) this is related to the well-known psychological phenomenon where people generally blame their own failures on their environment while blaming everyone else's failures on the people themselves. Because everyone is well-aware of all of the challenges that they themselves have faced and so have excuses to make for themselves, but they don't have that same first-person perspective on everyone else, they only see other peoples' final actions and the consequences of them.

This is some kind of named bias, but I can't remember the name of it. Anyone else?

Nils Loc

Are you saying that we validate our existence by receiving attention from other people? — Alejandro

We become who we are through our relationships to other people (does sound a bit general and cliche). You may intentionally change how you interact depending on the nature of the relationship and many other impressions. As to whether this kind of curation is to be labeled authentic or fake, who is to finalize that determination?

Oh... I hate ending with questions.

This is some kind of named bias, but I can't remember the name of it. Anyone else? — Pfhorrest

You're not secretly testing us are you, as if we ought to know. Egocentric bias? Hypocrisy?

Pantagruel

Has the preservation of the individual corrupted our way of thinking and engaging with each other? — Alejandro

The individual-centric bias definitely limits our ability to think in collective-systemic terms. It is one of the great challenges of systems philosophy to replace this unfortunate perspective of modernity with a more organic one. Perhaps one hearkening back to an earlier kind of unified morality?

Pfhorrest

You're not secretly testing us are you, as if we ought to know. Egocentric bias? Hypocrisy? — Nils Loc

No, I genuinely can’t remember what it’s called, and can’t google for something I don’t know the name of. I don’t think it’s either of those, but googling “egocentric bias” lead me also to “self-serving bias” and “fundamental attribution error”. I think the latter is the term I was thinking of, but the former is a better match for the idea I wanted.

Pantagruel

No, I genuinely can’t remember what it’s called, and can’t google for something I don’t know the name of. I don’t think it’s either of those, but googling “egocentric bias” lead me also to “self-serving bias” and “fundamental attribution error”. I think the latter is the term I was thinking of, but the former is a better match for the idea I wanted. — Pfhorrest

Joseph Sirgy wrote an interesting book (called Self-congruity: Toward a theory of personality and cybernetics) which evaluates how the self-concept is maintained through a complex set of mechanisms involving self-knowledge, self-consistency, and self-esteem. Any of these dimensions can contribute in either a positive or negative way to overall self-congruity and obviously act as "biases" in a general way. Excellent read.

deletedmemberal

↪Pfhorrest

I think you are talking about the self-serving bias, the tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
“Absurd presumption in their own good fortune … [arises from]…the overweening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities." I do not remember where I took this quote from, but I think it illustrates your point nicely

deletedmemberal

Also, following up my initial idea, social psychology presents the concept of self-presentation: The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one´s ideals.
We always strive to be perceived as good and capable as possible. My judgement is that social media is the perfect tool to do as such

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