BFA STUDIO ART SENIOR PROJECT
BFA Senior Project: “Habituated”
One thousand two hundred and forty seven. That’s how many friends I have according to Facebook. About five of these people (give or take) really know me, and the stories of my life that make me who I am today. It would be socially taboo to post my deepest regrets, daily struggles, mistakes, lies, life changing tragedies, insecurities, addictions, and flaws. Behind the mask of the computer screen, we can be exactly what we need to be in order to fit in. Our face is seen only in the best light, on a good hair day, through a carefully edited profile picture. We express our thoughts by copying and pasting someone else’s in our “status update.” Our complicated personality is condensed down to our favorite books, movies, quotes, relationship status, religious views, and a small paragraph allotted for “about me.” Online social networking allows us to create an alter ego that hides our flaws and reduces us down to a generalized webpage. We become excessively entangled in our digital identity and seem to overlook the lack of truth and humanity in social networking. For senior project, I contacted Auburn University student peers/acquaintances and asked them to expose themselves beyond their Facebook profile page, and in return I shared myself with them. Seven brave students accepted the challenge to confess who they really are. My hope was to portray the struggle between our true selves and our digital persona, and through this I discovered that no matter what hardship or experience we may go through, we can relate to each other on a basic human level. Perhaps, this will allow the viewers, primarily the Facebook generation, to consider who they seem to be online in comparison to a raw and uncensored version of themselves.
One thousand two hundred and forty seven. That’s how many friends I have according to Facebook. About five of these people (give or take) really know me, and the stories of my life that make me who I am today. It would be socially taboo to post my deepest regrets, daily struggles, mistakes, lies, life changing tragedies, insecurities, addictions, and flaws. Behind the mask of the computer screen, we can be exactly what we need to be in order to fit in. Our face is seen only in the best light, on a good hair day, through a carefully edited profile picture. We express our thoughts by copying and pasting someone else’s in our “status update.” Our complicated personality is condensed down to our favorite books, movies, quotes, relationship status, religious views, and a small paragraph allotted for “about me.” Online social networking allows us to create an alter ego that hides our flaws and reduces us down to a generalized webpage. We become excessively entangled in our digital identity and seem to overlook the lack of truth and humanity in social networking. For senior project, I contacted Auburn University student peers/acquaintances and asked them to expose themselves beyond their Facebook profile page, and in return I shared myself with them. Seven brave students accepted the challenge to confess who they really are. My hope was to portray the struggle between our true selves and our digital persona, and through this I discovered that no matter what hardship or experience we may go through, we can relate to each other on a basic human level. Perhaps, this will allow the viewers, primarily the Facebook generation, to consider who they seem to be online in comparison to a raw and uncensored version of themselves.