Social and digital media give us a sense of belonging or collective identity through things such as social networking and other mediums where we can create our own identity.
If we look at Facebook as not just a social networking site but as a chance to give someone the means to create their own identity, we can see this website gives users the option to create their own profile and show their interests. Henry Jenkins explains that teens use this to construct and experiment with their identities which help us to create our sense of belonging. The idea of Facebook is to allow users to be whoever they please without restrictions thus subverting to the idea of Marxism.
The creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has also benefitted from having a sense of belonging. This is because he is now very popular and has become iconic for Facebook and no doubt has had an increase in ego. Merlau Ponty says that we have an embodied experience and anything in which we use our bodies to create new things and build our identity. This applies here as Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook using his own hands and shared it with others to be accepted, enjoyed and ultimately a sense of belonging is made.
So users of social networking sites and even the makers form their own identities and when others accept your ideas you form a collective identity and a sense of one-ness with these people because you all have things in common. On Facebook the ability to ‘like’ or comment on something or someone else’s status is another way in which we express our opinions to help form our own identities. The whole idea of involving yourself with some sort of social or digital media that involves other people supports the idea of people wanting a sense of belonging. Nobody wants to be ‘left out’ and so they will join the crowd so as not to feel alone. Many people are part of different online communities such as Youtube and other sorts of forums, where they can create their own identity and talk about their interests.
Although the idea of collective identity may seem positive, it can have a negative side. Recently, people used social networking websites to plan and get together thousands of other youths to riot in London leading to the London 2011 riots. In this sense, social and digital media can be seen as destructive. The collective identity in the case of the young rioters seemed to all be linked by way of a poor educational background, money problems and no future job prospects. You could say many youths joined in the riots as they felt a sense of belonging with the others involved and helped to fight the cause.
This leads onto another negative aspect of social media and collective identities is the idea of it being obtrusive. Michael Foucault said that surveillance in society could be intrusive in society. There are many different people in society and not everyone has the same views and interests which results in many different collective identities being formed. If there are so many collective identities then there are likely to be destructive ideas going around some groups and in order to prevent this they may need to be monitored but this will upset others.
In conclusion, social and/or digital media does help us to create our own identities, help us form collective identities and ultimately give us a sense of belonging whether it is with people we know in life or a community or social networking website on the Internet. These are place where we feel we belong and feel accepted within social media.
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