You might start by explaining what is a false self (which implies that there is a true self, which also probably needs explaining). If selves are constructed to create an interface with the culture around us, how can any self be real or false?

I ask this because I'm unaware of any data on this area, and would be interested to find out more.

And I'm sorry : the Irish answer a question by asking another. It's our national failing.

You might start by explaining what is a false self (which implies that there is a true self, which also probably needs explaining). If selves are constructed to create an interface with the culture around us, how can any self be real or false?

I ask this because I'm unaware of any data on this area, and would be interested to find out more.

And I'm sorry : the Irish answer a question by asking another. It's our national failing.

Well, this is so complex, some people are so true and the others are so false and of course there are a huge spectrum in between, so the percentage of of false self can range from 0% to 100%, as it highly dependent on the person himself. The easiest way of course is to know that trusting people based on facebook model or any other social media is risky and we have to always return to the natural way of knowing people away from the digital world.

Good question

Ronán Michael Conroy: I am using Donald Winnicott's work as a reference point here

اليوم كل شيئ مرتبط بالمعلوماتية وبالتالي لا توجد حقيقة نقية .وزيادة عن هذا ماهو زائف لكثرة التكرار والإعلان يتم تصديقه فنعتقد ان السؤال عن نسبة الكذب ونسبة الصدق كالسؤال عن هل تشرب الماء بكأس ام بقنينة

Today, everything is linked to informatics and therefore there is no pure truth. Moreover, this is false for frequent repetition and advertising is believed. We believe that the question about the percentage of lying and the proportion of honesty such as the question of whether to drink water in a cup or a bottle

Wahag Abass it seems that you are linking misinformation and misleading depictions of the self. I think this is a great connection. In some ways, both are forms of propaganda, no?

نعم دكتور

Yes

Benjamin Jurney – while I admire Winicott, his notion of the self is just that: a notion. Compare, for example, Lacan's view of the self as a fundamental piece of méconnaissance – a mechanism for misrepresentation, is another view.

We live in a society that promotes the idea of the self in order to groom us as consumers. "Because you're worth it.".

Perhaps a more radical approach is the Buddhist one, laid out in the Diamond Sutra : our ideas of a self that has a birth, a life and a death, and an essential nature, are reifying a process, mistaking a verb for a noun. I rather like the thought experiment of going to heaven. Will I go now as my old, infirm but happy self? Or as a young man in my prime, but an awful jerk? Will I go as the sixteen-year-old in love with his childhood sweetheart? There is no 'self' to go to heaven. And, equally, no 'self' here either.

Or so it seems to me after a long life.

Dear Benjamim,

Facebook is a social network for people to exchange messages. Given that most of the messages that are exchanged via facebook are messages among people who do not know personally, it may be an ideal place for one convey an idea of himself/herself that does not correspond to reality, that is, a false self. Because of this I only use facebook to exchange message with persons I know personally or persons on whom I can trust. I have not percentages to mention you. Even so, I guess that the majority of the messages via facebook among persons who do not know personally revolve around false selves, virtual reality, and the like.

Kind regards,

Orlando

Orlando M Lourenço "Facebook is a social network for people to exchange messages"

Facebook is a system for harvesting personal information which can be sold. As they say, if you haven't paid for it, you are the product. Aside from its adverse effects on mental health, Facebook is one of the greatest threats to individual freedom that has ever been possible. And at every turn of events Facebook has shown itself to be utterly lacking in any ethics or even concern for the people whose lives they sell.

Article A systematic review of the mental health outcomes associated...

The abstract is grim reading:

The effect of social networking site (SNS) use on mental health has attracted growing scholarly attention, yet the nature of this relationship remains contentious. A systematic review was conducted to examine mental health outcomes associated specifically with the SNS, Facebook. A total of 65 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Facebook use was associated with six key mental health domains: Facebook addiction, anxiety, depression, body image and disordered eating, drinking cognitions and alcohol use, and other mental health problems, albeit the strength and validity of these relationships varied.

Dear Ronán.

As a psychologist, I am fully aware of the dangers of the network called facebook. But it can also be used to publish good viedeos with good poetry, painting and music. But I also understand that facebook use is associated several mental problems as those you mention: Facebook addiction, anxiety, depression, body image and disordered eating, drinking cognitions and alcohol use and so forth.

Fakebook for fake selves... from the moment we try to explain ourselves through words or images (whether glorifying or not ) we enter the realm of division and separation from the truth. As the old Indian saying goes "when the sage points to the sky, all the fool sees is the finger". In this case however there is no sage so we simply have the fool pointing to the clouds, and the other fool asking is that a real finger or a fake finger? The sky, unfortunately is out of sight for both until the pain of disconnection becomes too much and the illusion of the clouds is exposed. In a way Facebook is accelerating this process..

I have an article about this topic pending publication on Brain Blogger. As a clinician I regard the split-object representation as always encompassing self and other and its relationship to attachment sub-types. I am including this article here.

Rich

Facebook was created simply for human connections; however, the way it is done will depend on what one thinks is necessary to do to connect with others and it is usually through showing their strenghts. If they value leisure they will expose trips, vacations, hobbies, etc. Others feel like life in family is more valuable, so they will expose family gathering. I feel that facebook facilitates your showing of what you feel is the best in you , but it is about what YOU feel about you and not what OTHERS think of you. SO it can be very true, or very false...

The paper by Johnathan Levav et al. on the compensatory consumer behaviour model comes to mind. Social media is a medium for compensation. It compensates for the inadequacies and inhibitions we face in the physical world.

It could also be highly depressing as it gives an ephemeral pleasure.

I would define false self as a thin line between the persona online and offline. We would have to look at some measure of the person's character offline. Maybe an alternative reality of how the person could be offline. We could use propensity score matching to match an online profile with an offline person with similar characteristics. Just an idea. This way we could measure the degree of false self.

Vinay, thank you for including this very relevant work. I agree that social media serves a compensatory function, and the economic lens is highly useful.

Since I have mainly listened and not contributed, I will try to flesh out my own view of the true/false self and its relation to social media. To me, a false self is an externalization of desired (or potentially undesired) qualities intended to serve a social function and/or reduce internal conflict. Before the rise of social media networks, one could only broadcast the false self to small audiences. Now, audiences range from tens to hundreds to thousands of viewers.

This is where I begin draw connections to narcissism. To me, a key tenant of narcissistic behavior involves the dissolution of interpersonal boundaries. I have previously posited that Facebook merely disguises itself as a tool: interpersonal communication is not unique to Facebook, nor is access to entertainment or journalism. However, what is unique is the ability to broadcast interpersonal communication to the wider public. In a sense, the user is using the platform to reconcile the true and false self; yet while this process once took place between intimate friends or behind the doors of a therapist's office, it now takes place in the public square.

It seems to me that Facebook's model facilitates not only the materialization, but the publicization of the false self. A vicious cycle emerges: the user, faced with the high stakes of social exposure, is further incentivized to manipulate self-presentation. Here, behavioral modification takes place, as the user learns that curated content will lead to contingent rewards in the form of likes, etc.

Dear Benjamin

If the post above is how you define "false self" then I think facebook accommodate its appearance and prevalence among its users . The very idea of social media is that someone could choose and curate which aspect of him/herself to present to everyone (we often have no such choice in real environment). Social media give someone an outlet to show one's Ideal self through it. But, is the whole model built around this "presenting ideal self"? I think not, but it certainly facilitate and enable such behavior.

It's hard to see how a facebook self is a false self, while dressing yourself is a real self. The clothes we wear are frequently determined by social norms, the specific expectations of our job, place in the social hierarchy etc. And as for wearing makeup, foot-crippling high heels, leg-freezing skirts – we are all to some extent false, but in the case of women doubly so.

Perhaps a better term would be constructed selves. "False" seems to be a value judgement, as though there were a "true" self that could be experienced naked, in total darkness in a flotation tank. Actually, I fear that the opposite is more common : that left alone with nothing to do, no-one to talk to, no background music, no phone to noodle with, most people are ill at ease. They have no one to be someone for. Curiosity about this led me, in fact, to do a paper on boredom proneness.

I submit that facebook does indeed require people to build a constructed self, but no more so than, for example, a job role or a relationship. If we get beyond the value judgements, we can better compare and contrast the constructed selves in online and social encounters.

Though leaving aside the really fascinating question : who are you when no-one, not even you, is paying attention?

false Facebook-self is an important phenomenon to study because it can serve as a gateway issue to more problematic behaviors which may lead to psychological problems .

Please could you recommend some papers on the subject. I think this yopic needs urgent research and action! Thanks

I am puzzled by the interactions. Biology of brain do not accept all these theories. It is just like saying Mama had a big nose and that created all problems.

Everyone trying to be righteous

My paper on the Digital Self will be published on Psych Central in a few weeks. At the editor's suggestion I've expanded the article. Here it is.

Rich

Maybe this is not so much a false self as to raise a sense of self-worth and close oneself from others with a made-up illusion.

Facebook and twitter are rightly under attack for Russian interference on a massive scale. And for me as an American is is working quite well in dismantling US democracy! I invite those who are interested to react to my attached article.

Rich

Yes, I think so.

If "false self" = social self which is far away for the true self*.

*when "true self" is the inner, subjective coordinator, pure self-consciousness, the center of psyche. The one which is included (as observer and director) into the process of Individuation (Jung), Psychosynthesis (Assagioli), Self-actualization (Maslow).

Of course we have many social selves - the one in facebook often is idealized version of individual's ideal self, but instead of searching it inside itself, he creates it's version (often fake) into outer world (and cyber social-media "world").

If true self is = (and is a director) of other social selves (roles of mother/father, beloved, professionalist and etc.) then the difference between inner, true self, and social selves will be very insignificant.

P.S. Please, excuse my small mistakes in English, it isn't my mother tongue.

Most people have a flexible and multi-instrumental self-concept, where not only self-confrontation is possible (G. Hermans), but also the desire to show oneself to others "special and exceptional" (bold, rude and just a hooligan). This is not a false I, but ostentatious or I am parading.