The Facebook Profile Pic.

This video sums it up what i've said below in my posts.

What are the images that make up my online identity?

Today, I took a journey through my Facebook. What photos have i chosen to represent myself online? Which photos construct my online identity?

The profile photo: This photo is 16 months old. It was taken at my Aunt's engagement party, i've cropped my cousins to my left out. It remains my profile photo because i like it. My face is clear of blemishes, i look happy and relaxed. 

The cover photo: This photo was taken during the winter break while road tripping in New Zealand. Where my other cover photos have featured US monuments while on exchange there, or of The Great Hall set up in exam mode many decades ago while i was studying for my exams, this photo is just fun. I chose it to be my cover photo because its fun and happy. 

The album cover photo: This is the only photo i haven't selected, it's been selected for me (ie. the most recently added photo of me). The photo is of a few pieces of furniture - odd? Very. But what very few people could be able to tell from the photo is of the story behind it. When i was packing up my apartment last year upon nearing the end of my semester exchange in North Carolina, i gave my housemate my black lamp. Boring right? This photo, however, is of my housemate's new apartment and she's tagged me to show that she's still using my lamp. Yay!

So they're the 3 photos people come across when they look at my Facebook profile. Are they representative of me? Sort of. They show that i've been travelling - a Giant Kiwifruit one could assume is a tourist attraction. My profile photo shows a happy and relaxed self. Is that me? Currently no. At the moment i'm tired, stressed and my skin's not terribly clear. Why haven't i taken a photo of myself of that? Because i don't want people to see me like that, or think of me as grumbling. I don't want to grumble, although tired and stressed i know it will soon pass and why drag down the mood of an online identity that shows me happy and enjoying myself. 

But I wonder why we do this? Why do we only choose the pretty photos of us, the one's we show us as happy. I know you asked this Anna in your post. I wonder if this is something we should explore? On what grounds do we choose our profile photos? Perhaps how do we construct our online selves in relations to photos? I'm sure this can be put together in nicer words, but it's a good question. 

A constructed version of the self - I've been thinking about this in response to my post about photos creating authenticity.

Yes, photos do create a sense of authenticity, but what role does our ability to regulate the photos we're tagged in play.

As i mentioned in my last post, I went to a Hen's Party last weekend. The bride's mother had a camera and was 'recording' the event, she snapped photos of us at the sophisticated high tea in the afternoon, in front of the Stretch Hummer, having drinks on our way to the city inside the Hummer, while waiting outside the dance studio for our lesson, during the lesson, at the bar after the lesson etc. You get the idea, throughout the night, photos were taken. 

But fast-forward to Monday morning when i was on my way to uni and the notification came up "Kirsty Smith added 22 photos of you." Suddenly i was anxious. What were the photos of? Were they of me respectably sipping champagne at the high tea or slightly tipsy with a leg looped around a pole at the pole dancing class? I was on edge as my train entered a tunnel and i was unable to view the photographs now contributing to my online identity. I wasn't ashamed of my involvement in the pole dancing class, but i still didn't want all my Facebook friends thinking that was an accurate representation of me. 

My day progressed, back-to-back classes and meetings and before i knew it i was at home and had been unable to regulate my online profile. As i sat down on Facebook in the early hours of the morning to see which photos had been taken, a notification came up.

A church friend had seen the photos and commented. I immediately took down the photo which presented me playfully lifting the tip of my dress up. Then the same friend posted on my wall. 

I had regulated my photos, i had removed a tag from the photo to disallow my Facebook friends to see the photo. I had effectively, altered a version of my self. In reality i was enjoying myself, having a laugh with friends at a pole dancing studio, but online i had removed the record of that. 

My Facebook photos are a representation of who i am. I removed the tag of a photo that i thought lowered my sense of self. I was constructing my identity. 

I wonder how often people do this, i wonder how often i do this without realising. Removing photos of me looking awkward, removing photos of me in social situations that others could perceive me as something other than where i want to be seen. Where once we didn't remove a photo from the developers envelope and frame it, now we remove any record of it, or just any ability for people we care about seeing it.