Caught in Self-manipulation on Social Media and How To Break Away

Advances in technology make humans seem to be inseparable from the use of the internet. The convenience that is most felt on the internet is that it is easy to receive or provide information and communicate. Online mass media is one of the containers that provide convenience in the field of information.

This media is able to provide information quickly and can be accepted by the wider community. Online mass media has various types, lately what has become a trend among the public is social media or often also referred to as social media. 

Social media users can easily share both individual and general information. Most social media users will share their life moments on social media, such as while on vacation, eating, shopping, and much more. 

Without realizing it, humans are increasingly imitating uploads that they find interesting and sometimes forget what their real condition is. Therefore, this issue is interesting to be explored in more depth.

According to Shirky (2008), social media is a tool to increase the ability of users to share, collaborate with users and take collective action that is outside the institutional or organizational chain. 

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Line, Youtube, TikTok, and so on are hobbies that are loved by young people or women. 

The development of social media as a new media, makes it easier for users to interact and present themselves either immediately or delayed and to a wide or limited audience. 

However, this freedom and convenience allow a person to manipulate himself through social media, one of which is by manipulating his data according to his wishes.

Nowadays, social media allows individuals to show different self-presentations. Self-presentation is an individual's effort to create a certain impression in front of others by arranging behavior so that other people interpret their identity according to what they want. 

In the identity production process, there are considerations made regarding the attributes of the symbol to be used and the message to be conveyed that is able to support the identity that is displayed as a whole. The production of this identity sometimes brings each individual into self-manipulation.

Examples of self-manipulation on social media are the names they use and the information or content they post (status, tweets, comments, photos, etc.). 

Self-manipulation in presenting themselves on social media can occur because individuals have more control in the presentation of themselves that they want to be shown in cyberspace. 

Whereas indirect interaction, individuals tend to place limitations in presenting themselves to others, because the claims of individual self-presentation can be refuted by other people who are dealing directly with them. Currently, social media allows individuals to show different self-presentations.

In presenting themselves on social media, individuals need to have virtual impression abilities. As human beings, of course, humans will always want to be considered extraordinary or considered more by others. When presenting themselves, usually individuals share something that is happy, proud, luxurious, and much more. 

Things like this can sometimes make someone feel jealous or even want to imitate it. But not infrequently from those who do not understand their own condition. They forget who he really is, they even try to be someone else without understanding what his condition is. 

Wanting to look luxurious, then he will upload a self-presentation related to luxury, for example going shopping to the mall, taking vacations all the time, expensive food, branded clothes, parties, and so on. 

Wanting to look happy, then he will upload something that shows his happiness and comfort in life. Stuff like this is fine and fun, but self-manipulation isn't a good thing to keep doing.

Not all activities have to be posted on social media. Social media addiction also affects one's self-presentation. Humans are not always in the same state, happiness with sadness, pleasure and misery, ease and difficulty, and many more are things that always exist and change each other in human life. 

In presenting themselves virtually, social media seems to be a place to show happiness and luxury, so many people force themselves to look like that on their social media. This condition needs to be noticed by everyone that social media is not a place to show off. 

Awareness of each individual is needed to prevent self-manipulation. Self-manipulation seems to force everything to fit the life he wants, and of course, it can damage his mental health because he will always feel lacking, jealous, even to the point of losing his confidence. This condition is not very good to continue, various actions are needed to stop self-manipulation on social media.

Here are actions that can be taken by someone who has fallen into fakeness on social media. 

1. First, try to accept how the life he lives. Whatever and whatever the condition, humans must always be grateful. As a social media user, each individual must be able to think more deeply and not easily accept the various things he sees on social media without filtering them first. The way to be able to accept one's own life is not to compare one's own life with others/not to be jealous of other people's lives. Always grateful is the key to avoiding envy and finding happiness. 
2. Second, always think about the impact that will occur from the posts that we upload on social media. Social media has become a part of our lives, but that doesn't mean the various activities we do have to be uploaded and witnessed by many people. Some of these actions can be taken to avoid and prevent self-manipulation on social media. Next is the critical action that can be taken by other parties who encounter something like this is not to judge it, every person's behavior must have a reason. Don't upload all the activities you do, especially those that can cause jealousy. Because envy is one of the causes of manipulation in presenting oneself on one's social media.