Social Media Perceptions

Wednesday as my roommate awoke from her nap, she looked at me in horror and could only utter "wow, you are...horrifying.” I realized then that I had accomplished my mission of looking entirely different than I normally do. With the photography aid of a friend, I posted this picture on Instagram Wednesday telling my followers that it was a class project and asked them to please comment what their perceptions would be if they saw a person like this walking on the street. I received far more responses than I expected, with a far greater variety of viewpoints than I anticipated.

 There were some common threads throughout the comments and most people thought that this girl was edgy, confident, dark, and intimidating but that is really where the consensus ends and the truly interesting part of this experiment begins. Peoples’ past experiences and backgrounds MAJORLY impacted their perception of the person in the picture. I was able to break the 40 comments I received into 3 main groups: Fashion or arts school students, people from large cities, and Provo Mormons/people from small towns.

My fashion and art friends loved this girl and focused on her interests. Many said that she would be the kind of girl who always had a notebook into which she scribbled poetry, lived in bookstores and coffee shops, and was a slave to fashion blogs. They liked this girl and weren’t afraid of her, even if they admitted she was intimidating. They recognized the intent in her style and, even when it didn’t match their own personal style, they appreciated the way she looked.

My friends from large cities were the ones most likely to comment with this girl’s full life story. According to them, she is misunderstood, independent, cold, dark, and doesn’t need many friends. One comment talked about how she is very hard to get to know, but that she likes it that way, she doesn’t want fickle friends. This girl has an opinion about everything, but doesn’t really care what anyone else says.

Unlike the other two groups where some similarities can be seen, the Provo group was 100% different. They did NOT like this girl. She was scary, weird, and essentially needed someone to tell her she was a ‘Daughter of God’. She is lost and trying to “find her identity through clothing”.  One comment read that she was “confused as to what defines your inner and outer beauty” (again, code for she is a lost child of God). While one of my roommates thought the look was awesome (she lived in NYC) the other two felt very uncomfortable around me like this, one even went so far as to tell me she was waiting for me to start worshiping Satan any moment. While their words were softened, it was very clear that many of my sweet kind Mormon friends did not like this girl.

What this exercise taught me is that peoples’ perceptions of someone are greatly impacted by their past experiences. All of my followers looked at the same girl and saw entirely different things. Some saw a girl they were dying to get to know, others a sad misunderstood rebel, and others still a heathen who should be avoided. This was a good lesson that taught me not all audiences will perceive the same message the same way and that I need to be mindful that not everyone sees the world in the same way. 

This image can be viewed at http://instagram.com/p/e_G3kMFSzY/, but for some reason, only the last few comments are showing up.