R4: What is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism, in the context of social media today, is the idea that everything we relies on fluidity. Most interestingly, this has to do with our identities. With the use of technology to create websites that require profiles; Unsurprisingly many people use these profiles to amp themselves up a bit. Similar to a fluffed up resume, people tend to want to become more exciting and interesting online than they are in real life, many people even create completely fake profiles with no real information or photos. This phenomena of creating fake, buffed up online personas has grown so rapidly in the last few years because the internet simply makes it easy. 

Postmodernism in its fluidity is useful for understanding social media because it explores the ways in which we aim to be seen. The use of profiles and wanting to show off our lives is a symptom of the postmodern world where everyone wants to be seen, understood, and appreciated. "The postmodern world is obscene since everything is made visible, broadcast, and so forth" (Ritzer) This definition of the postmodern world by Ritzer describes how we use social media to use our agency to expose parts of our life that we want to be acknowledged and praised for. From Twitter to LinkedIn, we create virtual versions of ourselves that showcases what we are most proud of. Whether it is our sense of humor, or our knack for photography, we want to be "obscene".

Ritzer, George. The Society. "The Internet Through a Postmodern Lens." Cyborgology. N.p., 08 Dec. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.