Umberto Eco Quotes

We live in an age where there is a firehose of information, and there is no hierarchy of what is important and what is not. Where the truth is often fashioned through a variety of digital means. Are you your avatar? Who are you in social media? What face do you turn toward the world? How much does it have in common with who you actually are?

Twitter is about creating whatever persona you want to create and either sticking with it or changing it or evolving it or contradicting it, and I've done all that stuff.

The version of me on the Internet, it's not me. It's one portion.

For the record, I don't really hate myself, but I do hate the way I portray myself online.

Online, you play at being yourself.

There's more of me on Twitter than there is in real life.

My theory is that we used to have several personalities, and now we're encouraged to have one online.

I have a twitter, but I try to not talk about things like, "Oh, I had a grapefruit this morning and it was delicious," because, who cares? But, I think it can serve as a platform for talking about things that matter to me, like the organizations that I work with. As pretentious as that sounds, it is true. You can really make a difference, if you can create a following and actually represent who you are, as opposed to how people want to portray you. But, I don't know what the balance is.

I know so many kids who literally are, like, Instagram-famous. They have done nothing but post pictures on Instagram. And they have followings. People love to see them in person, but it's only because they post on their Instagram. It's literally crazy. Kids will paint a picture of themselves that is so far beyond who they actually are. It's like they're wearing someone else's skin.

On social media, like on Instagram and stuff that I post, and the way that I view myself, and portray myself on there, that's definitely a much more personalized take. I'm not collaborating with people to make that, it's my own social media platform in which I'm - it's not a character, it's just me.

I'm very open in terms of sharing bits about my life, but I think it's very easy to get a distorted sense of who anyone is through social media.

The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly. Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.

I watch people, friends of mine, and see how they portray themselves online and I find interesting that it's kind of a hyper-real version of yourself, how you'd like to be seen, in a way.

There's this large trend - I think the next trend in the Web, sort of Web 2.0 - which is to have users really express, offer, and market their own content, their own persona, their identity.

I'm not a Facebook girl. Even though there is a fake Facebook with my name, it's not me. I'm not on Twitter; it's not me.

Social media is changing the way we communicate and the way we are perceived, both positively and negatively. Every time you post a photo, or update your status, you are contributing to your own digital footprint and personal brand.

I have a Twitter account. I own my name, but I've never tweeted.

I'm naturally shy, so the social media thing is new to me. I haven't really figured out how my voice sounds on social media, you know? I don't want to tweet everyday just for the sake of tweeting. I want to make sure whatever I do there is honest. Social media can very quickly get fake, and I don't want to be that guy.

Look, I don't have a Facebook page because I have little interest in hearing myself talk about myself any further than I already do in interviews or putting any more about myself online than there already is. But if I wasn't in this position, I'm sure I would use it every day.

I think Instagram at its best is where you feel like you're getting the most authentic version of the person on the other side of the camera. Someone who does this wonderfully well is Lena Dunham.

If my life depended on being a social-media person in terms of talking myself up, I probably would be in trouble because - not that I wouldn't be able to step up to it - but I wouldn't love it. I wouldn't want to be that person; that wouldn't be my natural thing.

When you open up 'Instagram,' you need to know that you're seeing the real Tony Hawk, the real Taylor Swift, the real Burberry.

In the media, I do not feel recognised, but that's because I don't put myself in the media. I'm not a player who is always on Twitter or Facebook.

It's been well documented how we start to believe in our virtual or digital selves more than our real selves, but it's strange to think that human behaviour hasn't really changed at all since that legend was created.

All of us in the modern world are constructing our identities, largely through social media, for a larger audience.