Joshua Wooi
Meredith Smith-Lane
English 250 – Assignment 2
January 27th, 2019
Summary of “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am” by Peggy Orenstein
Peggy Orenstein made a claim in the article “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am”, that one’s presence on social media rarely reflects the life of an individual in actuality. In this article, Orenstein suggested that the current social climate has made it impossible to avoid social media entirely. The author expressed dejection towards her instinctive behavior of living her life as an outsider, and how the use of social media has molded her daily routines and habits. She articulated a constant need to project herself into the world, and how it has affected her active, open, and intentional attention on the present. To support this claim, the author referenced a study that suggested the manner in which one presents themselves publicly is but a contrived performance in response to external factors and opinions. For conceited reasons, we manipulate and manufacture our public presentation to more closely resemble our own ideals of our public identity, rather than to display our genuine selves. This, in turn, has clouded the distinction between our public and personal lives because of how exposed we are through social media, which would suggest inauthenticity in the façade we present ourselves as. However, the author acknowledged that social media was not without its merits in regards to its potential for connections, but also mentioned that this comes to be a detriment when the use of social media enables the oversharing of unfiltered thoughts and self-expression. Ultimately, this leads to the erosion of personal and intimate relationships. That said, the author displayed no desire to swear off social media in its entirety, but rather expressed the intention to suppress the urge to share every detail of her life.