Does Social Media Bring Out Our Split Personality Disorder?
Watched ‘Split’ the movie where the main character ‘Kevin’ has … wait for it … 24 different personalities in him!
TWENTY FOUR.
He was abused by his mother and different personalities emerged over the years to cope with his surrounding, ever since he was a young boy.
His personalities include one where he is a clean freak, a young boy, a fashionista, some 21 others. Including, becoming a ‘beast’.
…
In today’s online world, many in fact suffer from split personalities, tooHusband and I discussed this movie and we truly believe such split personality disorders exist. Not sure if one can have up to 24 personalities, though. But I’m sure there’s always someone out there, with a weird disorder, waiting to be diagnosed.
But anyway, as we chatted away, we sort of realised, … hey, in today’s online world, many in fact suffer from split personalities, too!
Think about it.
Today’s social media ‘encourages’ people in general to have online persona that’s often DIFFERENT from their ‘real’ life.
People freely use random names on their ‘extra’ accounts, state dates of birth that are not theirs, and even post other people’s photos, pretending to be THAT person.
Use another account to leave hateful comments on other accountsFor example,
In real life, John is quiet and timid. But online, he’s bubbly, fun and lively. John also has ‘extra’ secret accounts (well, perhaps just one or two extras) where he’d post ‘uglier’ photos of himself OR some other person whom he dislikes, and use another account to leave hateful comments on other accounts, usually those whom he dislikes.
See how many ‘personalities’ John already has online?
To me, this is a scary fact.
But it is just SO real today.
…
Are we the same person online and offline?
Do we (unconsciously or consciously) do what John (fictional character) does?
Do we know what our children are like online?
Food for thought.
