Impression Management throughout High School

Last post I discussed the idea of an individual’s personal and social identity and how that person has somewhat control over the self-censoring of the social identity others label them with. Though we will never full possess the capability of controlling which labels others assign to us we do have the  ability to control how others see us or to convince them that we are who we say we are. This type of control is called impression management and it is something we all do whether we notice it or not. Kenneth J, Gergen concludes that in the technologically advanced world we live in today an individual has the ability to “create and re-create” their personal identity more than ever before. This occurs because of how easy it is through facebook, twitter, email and texting (just to name a few) to quickly establish a new relationship or in some cases, end a relationship. I can remember back to my sophomore year in high school when I heard about a girl one year younger than me from my grade school. As most freshmen do, whether in high school or college, they try fit in with their new crowd by portraying themselves as part of the same institution with the clothes they wear, the way they talk, how they act around their fellow peers and teachers at school, and how they present themselves on facebook. This particular girl fell victim to this need to impress. Trying so hard to impress this new older boy she had romantic feeling for, she decided to send him nude pictures of herself. Unfortunately, the boy which was my age thought it would be an easy way to impress his friends with a laugh by mass emailing the photos of the girl out to three different area high schools. Soon most high school students in the St. Louis area had either heard of or seen the pictures and knew the name of the girl in them. For her remaining years in high school the girl was forced to learn a convincing from of impression management. However she acted in public, what she wore out at night, who she hung out with, however she designed her facebook profile and whatever she said on the internet for her remaining three years in high school was all one entire effort to convince others that she was not a “slut.” Personally , I believe she successfully practiced her own type of impression management. After attending Mizzou, which is known for being a college many St. Louis kids attend, she is no longer associated with these photos. In fact she is one of the classier girls I know and is well respected by both her male and female peers.