Looking at YouTubers, we can see that the construction of identity in a digital world can be deceiving as to what someone’s actual identity/personality is. The way we construct our identity online is the way that we want people to perceive and see us – much like the average person does when playing games, YouTubers are a great example of people who construct their identity in a way that will make people want to watch them, and leave people wanting more.
To look at the construction of identity, we’ll be looking at famous YouTubers like Dream and MrBeast, and referencing Erving Goffman.
Front Stage: “The world is a stage”; the way people behave when they know others are watching.
Goffman, 1959.
Erving Goffman presents us with impression management, which is when people try to present themselves in a way that prevents embarrassment. When we look at YouTubers like Dream, on the left is how everyone saw him for years when he rose to fame, compared to the right hand side being what he actually was.
He presented himself in his videos as engaging, and he put on an ‘act’ for his audience – much like Goffman’s idea of setting and personal front. He rose to fame through his ‘manhunt’ videos, and he performed so people liked him.
However, what all Dream fans were waiting for was his face reveal. In relation to appearance and manners, Goffman states that “the actor’s appearance reflects their social status, and their manners tell the audience what to expect”.
Dream made himself out to be a “dirty blonde”, in which people made fanart for (which you can see in the picture above he is not), and after his face reveal, many people made fun of him. Infact, numerous memes and videos were made of people reacting to the face reveal – his true self was not what people expected or wanted.
Similarly, looking at a YouTuber like MrBeast, we can see the front stage and back stage performance a lot more. MrBeast puts on a smile for the cameras and presents himself as a charitable and entertaining figure. He has a philantropy company, he does charity videos, he does numerous entertaining videos for his audience too.
His front stage performance shows that he is an extremely kind hearted soul – how could he be any different?
Back stage, however, MrBeast is not all smiles. Goffman highlights that people are more “comfortable and relaxed” backstage – MrBeast is currently dealing with a 54 page lawsuit on how they were mistreated in his care. Not only that, but a member of his own team was accused of having sexual relations with a minor.
While people can construct an identity online, it is not always their authentic self. YouTubers in general present good examples of people who perform for their audience, and alter their sense of self as to what the general audience wants to see. Dream made himself out to be a “hot” YouTuber, in which the audience did not think was true after his face reveal. MrBeast makes himself out to be a generous man, when he “treats women with disrespect”.
Goffman shows that the digital world is not a reliable source of what someone’s true self is.
References:
Goffman, Erving. (1959) “The presentation of self in everyday life“. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
