As this class surrounds itself around the topic of doubles, I have learned a lot about them throughout this semester and have a much better understanding of what they are. Prior to this class I did not know that they are very relevant in novels and are very prevalent in stories throughout history and today. I also started to realize that many of us create dual identities or doubles of our own…
The major way that I see doubles today is through people’s social media. Many people present themselves a certain way in their Instagram profiles showing off how glamorous and how much fun they are having in their life, but it is all fake. What we tend to see on people’s Instagram is their highlights and the major events that are going on in their life and tend to not really know what happens with their day to day lives. To me this is very strange as the whole point of Instagram and social media is to make connections and keep in touch with each other. To do this, people will create multiple Instagram accounts and post their highlights on their main account and then post what really happens in their life on the second account. I too am guilty of this.
Above shows examples of the different types of post, in one you can tell this is clearly my friend’s main account as it shows him smoking a cigar in a tropical place. In the other photo you can tell that this is his second account which is more personal. While I was told to blackout everything in this photo, the caption actually reads, “a productive week of nothing but sleep.” The second set of pictures show my two Instagram accounts. In the first photo it looks like I am having a good time at the Cotton Bowl at a fraternity function and in the second shows a post of a rough week I was having. While this is only of the photos, the others that followed would show how bad my week was.
Essentially by creating these two accounts we are all making doubles of ourselves. When people view the first Instagram account that has more followers we are creating a false image of ourselves that when people meet us we are completely different than our social medias. For their close friends to follow we are seeing what their life actually is like. Using social media in this way ultimately creates a double of the person: one of who they really are and the second of what they want people to think what their life is like.