My Naked Self
A group for those wishing to explore and discuss how nudism and naked self portraits (aka nude selfies) help us explore our personal, social and cultural identities and how we express these aspects of self. All photos welcome with accompanying meaningful text to convey how the pic is an expression or exploration of self and identity. Please note - Private accounts or those with nothing to share...
- created by simone_b_free
Authentic self and social media
Return to DiscussionsHello and welcome to all the new members of this group :) it is great so many people are interested in the topic of identity and how we see ourselves. Self study and self development are the processes for becoming the best version of ourselves we can be. This is so important. We are currently seeing a world in turmoil precisely because we have allowed it to be led by men who have not taken the time to consider who they are and how they show up in the world, their impact and the consequences of their unethical actions; whether it be dropping bombs or tweeting aggression.
One of our members recently commented: Authenticity is so elusive in the age of social media. What do you think? I don't believe it is social media per se that is the problem. I think it is culture. There is little incentive in western culture to be honest about who you are. There are few rewards if you simply 'come as you are'. Social media is simply a tool, one that we would use differently if we had the courage to do the work that enables us to be our authentic selves. if we lived in a culture among other people who were taking time for self improvement, who were honest and open about past mistakes and things they've learned, if we shared more messages about being real and authentic, about the processes of unlearning and letting go of old beliefs and behaviours, if we had more conversations like this one...perhaps social media could become the tool that we need to encourage and enable authenticity, rather than one used to bury it deeper under the rubble of collective trauma.
Thank you for helping get the conversation going! In my mind, the awful things people say and do online is not about who they are, but the extent of their trauma. My guess is, those people are angry, frustrated, resentful, repressed, depressed, fearful, anxious, stressed, sleep deprived, financially insecure etc....from being constantly immersed in a culture that expects them to be more or different from who they feel they are and how they perceive themselves. We have to start the work somewhere, pick a point in the cycle to disrupt, why not here?
This is such a great topic. Social media has good and bad things. In my opinion, it is not that authenticity is elusive because of social media. I think that social media provides an access to so many people to express and portrait themselves trying to be what they are not. On the other side, social media gives ability to so many people to see that. It is so much wide spread with virtually unlimited reach. It was not possible before.
Is the social media to blame or a general culture of the society? Many people only read headlines with out reading a whole story and draw the conclusions from it. Is it busy life or lack of interest, or both? Many conversations are small and shallow talks. Also, many use it as a vent to express their frustration hoping to stay more anonymous.
There are fake and ungenuine people everywhere. We have all met them in our lives before social media. I think we see it more only because it is out there and it clearly bothering us because we care about a real and good conversation. And you can easily recognize a genuine person after a some chat.
True, social media should be a tool to express, and not just getting buried inside it. It is not a mask which we put on, it's empowering to show the real self. In closed doors it's easy but to reveal the true identity it needs courage and totall acceptance of ourselves.
I try to be an open book. This is who I am and my word is good, I do what I say but unfortunately on social media there are too many rules that don't let me be me. I would love to use the picture of me canoeing naked as my profile picture but that would land me in hot water and likely kicked of most sites. But that is just who I am. There are pictures I would like to post when I'm traveling of me walkinig naked on a beautiful beach or standing naked under a waterfalls but the pictures would be removed and then I would be removed from that site. Unfortunately social media also controls what we can say. If it goes against what those controlling the site believe they just remove it and us from the site. For a lot of people Facebook should acually be called Bragbook! I too truly wish people could just be authentic, honest and real instead of hiding behind the facade they create in order to try to fit in and be accepted. Just be your unique self and your true friends will accept and love you as you are. Lastly and unfortunately a lot of the rich and evil people in the world are the ones that control not just social media but media in general and do so for their own personal gain and agenda. So just be yourself and love others who are also being authentically open and honest about who they are.
Doug Nichols