People present themselves in a particular way for many reasons. They may do it to facilitate social interaction. In a social group everyone has their own role to play. You may be 'the funny guy', or 'the smart one.' So consciously or unconsciously you act in a certain way around others to portray yourself as whatever role you think is yours. For example, I know someone that if I was talking to them one on one they would be calm and speak in a normal tone. However, put them in a group and they act the clown. Within the group they play the role of the funny one so they take on that behavior.
Mostly people do it in order to create a certain impression of themselves. This is in an attempt to convince others that we posses a certain trait or are of a certain character. Adolescents often try portray many different identities throughout their teenage years in an attempt to discover 'who they are'. Again, I know somebody who has done this. They tried out the 'emo' look, the 'chav' look, the 'druggie kid'...They tried out every identity going throughout their adolescent years, behaving in a certain way in to portray themselves as whatever character they were playing at that time.
Self-presentation has become more and more common along with popularity of social media. This is because social media makes it very easy to only portray one side of yourself. We post certain statuses and tweets to display ourselves in a certain way. You might share all your success stories on Facebook but not mention a word if you loose. People post funny photos and stories to their page to seem like a person who is good fun. Others post 'selfies' in order to portray themselves as attractive. At the same time 'untagging' any picture of themselves that looks in anyway embarrassing or unattractive. Social media allows us to put our 'best face forward.'
However, it is important to note that we all present ourselves in a certain way but we differ in the amount we to this and in what way we present ourselves.
Studies have shown that the most popular identities that are portrayed are 'likable', 'competent', 'moral' and 'powerful'. Also, the most common impression management strategy is ingratiation. This is an attempt to get others to like you. We say nice things about others and do favors for others as a method of making them think that you are a likable person.
I don't want to say much more on this topic right now because i'm pretty sure I have an assignment coming up on this and I don't want to increase my similarity mark. The last thing i need is to get done for plagiarizing my own stuff...
Á bientôt.
