I was raised in the Jewish faith so my sense of self for many years was a tiny idea lost in a very crowded room. On the other hand I knew my sense of self existed with the shared belief and shared faith of millions of others Jews. Until this year when suddenly I realized that my sense of self has nothing to do with the Jewish religion. I had a ‘light bulb’ moment this year during a Rosh Ha Shana service in which I was overwhelmed with anger at the sexism, homophobia, elitism, and irrationality I found inherent in the religion. My faith disappeared, vanishing in the seconds when I had my realization. But what happened to my sense of self? My sense of self disappeared from that crowded room of Jews surely with my faith to exist . . . where? This paper explores how my contemporary loss of faith which led to a crisis in my sense of self compares to similar experiences of the great philosophers and thinkers of the Enlightenment and onwards. Human connections, the interrelationships with others and with self, are so different than pre-Facebook perhaps the great thinkers of the past had a strikingly different experience when struggling with issue of loss of self.
Social media offers a way to relate personal thoughts, emotions and activities with thousands of people (maybe millions) in a few seconds. The act of writing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn is social media that reaches out to others but when impact must make an impression on the self involved in sending the messages. Facebook allows you to literally build a public timeline so others can follow you and leave comments throughout your day. I can write an intimate or a general posting and the post remains there as a reference to the historical events in my life; a reflection of myself so perhaps a link to my sense of self. Twitter can capture my every waking moment in 140 characters while Instagram is the visual record of my day while LinkedIn is my professional record of successes and the proficiencies in all the tasks I have learned. Therefore I do exist, the social media applications prove it; but does that mean I have a sense of self?
Voltaire stay in England introduced him the English and their sense of self or what is called the English character. The English practiced a spirit of tolerance that he admired. Voltaire wrote “This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.” Self-love is a tool that can be used as part of our natural instinct to protect ourselves, to allow us to maintain our sense of self. Voltaire suggested that self-preservation can stave off damage that comes from experience in the external world. Life causes injury to the psyche and self-love allows the psyche to be healed. The Enlightenment was a time when excessive self-love like narcissism needed to be hidden; it was not socially acceptable to flaunt self-love in public. Narcissism means having too much self-love, so self-love as so many other things needs to be regulated and moderated in order to live an authentic life. Now within social media narcissists are easy to spot, but I can see by their example that moderation is the better path. Posting is a way of announcing the things I love the most about myself to the world. The physical act of posting allows me to reestablish my existence and my significance in the world. Therefore concealing self-love is not done to the degree it was done during Voltaire’s time, but self-regulation is still important in order to feel our sense of self without exaggerating or underestimating it. At the same time tolerance needs to be shown for others participating in social media; perhaps practicing tolerance is a way to be a role model for sense of self.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau shared his ideas about freedom and many of them relate well to the social media. In The Social Contract, he wrote that “There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.” Social media like Facebook and Twitter seems like a perfect setting for freedom of expression but it is false freedom on a number of levels. All the sites cost money to
operate and maintain so participants are exposed to advertisements to pay the price of admittance. Many ways to express freely ones opinion on music, politics and images are available in the form of clicking “Like” or “Share” or “Like this Page.” The question arises whether or not these free expressions or I have been led to certain items without my free will. Here is an example of when I need sense of self so I can look inward and really decide what action I want to take.
Rousseau poses another deeply important question if I am to consider his thoughts and fit them to the modern age. Rousseau challenges people to appreciate the value of their time on earth by using it wisely to work towards personal freedom. I think social media can be used to enhance an authentic life or to undermine an authentic life. I try to use social media in a way that enhances my life and helps more closely experience an authentic life. I do this by carefully choosing the people with whom I connect. I can learn important facts about the global state of affairs, environmental issues and human rights instead of choosing to follow the trending topics linked to the inauthentic lives of famous strangers.
Goethe wrote that “none are more hopelessly enslaved that those who falsely believe they are free.” The only way I can understand if I am truly free is by evaluating my sense of self, deciding who I am and what I stand for, and then I can understand whether or not I am free or not. Goethe reaches out from the Romantic period sharing his poetry. The Elf-King gives a reader the sensation of captivity; and I wonder if I have that feeling but have not admitted to it. I do express myself through different avenues of social media there are times I am trapped in a website long after the authenticity has worn out. There have been times when I have tweeted to members of my family when we were all home; this is surely a modern symptom of an inauthentic life. Posting to our friends instead of meeting them for face-to-face conversations is allowing ourselves to remain captive to the social media. There are times when my
mother has to wait while I am posting and that is a signal that I am a captive not freely involved in an authentic life. Therefore I am not captive to the same things that trapped Goethe but my experience with modern technology mirrors his.
Friedrich Nietzsche said, “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” Many of the items that I and others post on social media are expressions of our own inner chaos, our own inner wonder. Pictures of children at particularly charming moments are one example. Instagram shots of our loved ones can be enhanced by editing to reflect a patina of that classicism or modernism that will make them more personal to me and easier to identify as mine. The quotes and other pictures that I post are expressive in just the right way at a particular time and location. The items I share are expressions of my sense of self, but that may not mean that if all my posts were added together my sense of self would magically be created. The places in our souls that need to find a voice can do so. Nietzsche had an eye for the wonderment in reality that some of the other harsh critics of society in those years lacked. In contemporary times that would be the comparison someone like me who appreciates the magic of immediately being in touch with someone we love whether they are located in the same city or halfway around the world in distance. The part of my self-love that is connected to my sense of self has a need to spread love to others by doing so instead of decreasing my self-love an increase results. There are some parts of self-love that are not only beneficial to us but are also helpful to others. This can be done on social media like on Facebook with the “Share” button, and Twitter which allows me “Re-Tweet” something that had resonated with me. There are ways of categorizing what I like by choosing “Favorite” thoughts, images and inspiring news stories. By reinforcing the items I find attractive in some way I am reinforcing my sense of self in a physical act.
Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand wrote that “every man carries himself a world made up of all that he has seen and loved; and it is to this world that he returns, incessantly, though he may pass through and seem to inhabit a world quite foreign to it.” The social media represents an intriguing way for me to express myself and accept the offerings of others in the foreign country of social media. When I return to my own world and take a measure of my sense of self I feel that it has become stronger.
The crisis of faith that led me to worry about the location of my sense of self has changed. My faith is a faith in my ability to be authentic, not 100 percent of the time but when I take small steps with the intent to live authentically I feel my sense of self exists and is part of my being.
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