Do you follow me on Twitter? If so, you’re part of a pretty small group. I currently have 27 followers. But this really isn’t surprising. I’ve only been tweeting for a couple of months, and with very few exceptions, all of my tweets are about #historyau.
In reading this week about social media and identity, I think I’ve figured out why I resisted Twitter for so long. I used to say I wasn’t into Twitter because “nobody cares what color sweatpants I’m wearing.” I actually stole this line from something NBC News anchor Brian Williams said. Williams, I should add, is also now on Twitter and has 188, 973 more followers than I have (This is actually not even a large number of followers. Beyoncé has 13.3 million). But look at his profile:
You see what I see, right? He only follows 4 people (three of those aren’t even people) and hasn’t made a single tweet.
So, it’s strange that this sweatpants remark stuck with me. I’m not a Brian Williams fan. I don’t watch the nightly news. I don’t even remember where I heard him make this remark. Maybe my affinity for Williams’ sweatpants comment actually hints at a greater similarity. In “Working the Twittersphere: Microblogging as Professional Identity Construction” Dawn Gilpin addresses some of the issues I’ve been wrestling. She draws on the rich literature concerning identity construction – “the sense-making process by which people selectively organize their experiences into a coherent sense of self” – and highlights the blurring of professional and personal identities that social media cultivates. Ultimately, what that means is that:
Unless users adopt multiple online profiles, social networking sites represent a confluence of identity roles, spaces where users “must adjust their behavior so as to make it appropriate for a variety of different situations and audiences” (Papa-charissi, 2009, p. 207).
I can’t be the same person quoting Roy Rosenzweig with potential employers that I am quoting John Hughes movies with my sister. Social media participation forces us to integrate all the different parts of our identities, which might be a totally healthy and appropriate thing to do or maybe just ends up with a bland public persona that doesn’t accurately reflect any part of our identities. Brian Williams has clearly chosen to present only his professional persona, and a heavily curated version even of that. He probably doesn’t even have anything to do with this account. It’s certainly run by some NBC intern who probably tweets for all of the anchors. I don’t have any interns, so I manage my own account. I’ve chosen “History Grad Student” as my persona for now and use the platform to tweet out articles or information that might be interesting to anyone following #historyau. Tweeting this semester hasn’t brought me any closer to resolving the increasingly complex questions of boundaries in self-presentation. Maybe some off-line reflection this summer will do the trick.
The Future of the Past 
Very interesting. It is a struggle to figure out how to blend the personal and professional selves into a social media whole. I haven’t quite figured it out myself. I’m not really digging a “bland public persona” either though. On another note, I actually am disturbed by Brian Williams not following anyone. How is that social media community? It suggests he speaks, but never listens… Interesting.
Great points – I agree with Donnelle. However, it’s clear he does not speak much either. He represents the face of old media — broadcast journalism. And I suppose it’s not that surprising that his approach to new media is what it is.