Growing Confident?
Does social media give you confidence or take it away?
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace... the list goes on and on and with the ever growing number of people using these services the more confident people are becoming... or are they?
Research has shown that around 10% of the world's population live a secondary life online, that's nearly a 7 million of us! Yes I use many different social media sites some more than others but it is slightly scary that a huge amount of people choose to live their life online and in a virtual environment so they can create the person they want to be whether it is more successful or more attractive in a lot of cases, but is this really giving them confidence or pulling people into a 2D world and out of reality.
YouTube is probably the most likely source to put you in either of these situation as viewers can actually see you and what you're really like as a person. Gone are the days where you can hide behind the computer screen, however with that said is this a bad thing as well ? The internet as we know it is a fantastic place and I personally don't think the world would be where we are today without it, on the other hand though it is a incredible dangerous place to be and with so many people pretending to be people they aren't...who can you trust?.
YouTube in a way helps you feel more comfortable with who you are watching online which of course is a positive thing. Now for the downside...if you logged onto YouTube now and watched 10 videos from 10 different people I bet at least half of those videos half some nasty or degrading comments on them, yes some people just simply choose to ignore the people that feel it necessary to do so but some people can't do that and is this where people start to lose confidence online?
Do you record videos or write content to publish online? Do you want to but don't feel you have the confidence ? Whichever of the two categories you fall into it would be great to hear your story of how you cope or didn't cope with confidence issues on the internet.
Woody
Micheal Woodward Mar 14, 2010 at 7:28 PM
Reader Comments (3)
I write content to publish online. When I started my first blog I was quite nervous about it. But over time I think it's gotten better. I like the fact that I can post my opinions about things and see others. I also like the fact that if I chose to I could remian anonymous. I think in a sense social media is getting a little bit out of hand, but then you can always meet people in real like who aren't who they say they are. I guess nowadays you can never be truly safe.
Good points John , have you got a link to your blog that i can take a look at? . It's like a catch 22 situation... We can't be without the internet but there is alot of danger around aswell.
Then again i wouldnt have a job if it wasnt for the internet so i suppose im bias in some areas aswell.
Nice to hear from somebody that is in this situation though
I'm a video blogger on Youtube. I film 356 days of my daily life. Right now as of this writing I'm on Day 200. When I started I was really nervous and unsure who would want to watch my daily life as a college student. I started the blog for my girlfriend who's four hours away.
After the college found out about me blogging my journey I got a story in the newspaper on front page. I started getting noticed by other students, professors, and the head principal of the college.
I think now my confidence is better becasue of people watching and commenting. I feel better as a person when I show others how my life changes day to day. Sometimes there are good times or bad times, but overall it's a fun ride.