Hello everyone!
I am Ashleigh, and today I've got a bit of a chatty video talking about the construction
of identities.
Now, this video is actually inspired by Matthew over at MCS Books, because a couple of weeks
ago he made a video where he mentioned how we all construct our own narratives, and we
basically do so by choosing what to include on our videos, our social media, lots of different
things like that.
He was specifically talking about booktube, so he was talking about how we do so by choosing
what to include in our videos.
And it's a topic that had me thinking while I was watching, because it's something that's
come up at university as well.
We had quite a lot of discussions about how characters construct their own identities
by the way they narrate their stories.
So for instance, in Othello when he's choosing to tell his backstory, he would change how
he's telling that story depending who he was talking to, and how he wished to be perceived
by that person.
And this is something that we constantly do.
Even if I'm just telling a really mundane story, saying something like "I walked into
town".
The fact that I've chosen the word "walked" rather than "frolicked" says that it's just
an everyday thing, nothing really happened that was out of daily occurrences.
I just walked into town.
Nothing more is to be said.
However, if I say that "I frolciked into town" - being on brand as ever, more on that later
- because I had used the word "frolicked" instead of "walked", you would have an image
of me being really happy about going into town, almost skipping down the road and just
having a generally delightful time.
All of that just because I changed one word.
And this is something that we do automatically.
It's just the way that we as humans work.
But I feel like the best example for this construction of identity and to show how we
kind of weave our own narratives depending what sort of platform we're on is social media.
If I take myself for example, I have a lot of different social media.
One of them being this booktube channel, in which I talk about the books, and you can
see how I move, talk, just how I generally position myself as a person.
You can see what I'm like under this situation, talking about the things that I love.
On my blog, it's similar, but because it's written down it's a lot more structured, I
choose my words more carefully, and it tends to have a more aesthetic side to it as well.
I have two instagram pages, which are both purely aesthetics.
It's just for nice photos that I want to share.
And then we have twitter, which is just my general everyday thoughts and ramblings and
updates.
While all of these different platforms do represent me, they kind of show a different
side to me.
And even if you collect them all together, you still wouldn't see the full story because
I don't narrate every single aspect of my day online.
And I feel like it's kind of reflected on this channel.
Because for the last couple of months, I've been in a bit of a life slump.
I've not felt like making videos, blogging, reading, doing much of anything.
However you guys wouldn't know that unless I told you, because for the most part I've
still been uploading videos on a weekly basis.
However, when I look at my channel, I can tell that that slump happened, because the
videos aren't as original and creative as I wanted them to be, the content is quite
generic and the thumbnails are kind of lazy.
And the only reason it's any different is because I know the full story whereas you
guys don't, necessarily.
I'm quite happy to say that I do have the motivation to make things again now, so hopefully
over the next few months the kind of side to me that I feel like I lost in the previous
months will come back.
Because my main interest is in fantasy books and classics, nonfiction books about ancient
civilisations and things like that, which I just haven't been reading because I fell
into a slump and wanted easier books to read.
And so I want people to be able to associate me with what my main interests are again.
So hopefully that will happen over the next few months.
However, as well as all that, this topic did remind me about this internal conversation
I've been having with myself, where I kind of joke about being "a brand".
Quite a lot of people do this, it's just a thing on social media that people hopped on
board and all started doing.
But what I mean is that all the design, the aesthetics, even the name that I put onto
all of my content, I do that to make sure that all of my content can be associated with
each other and with me.
I have the same blog name across all my platforms, I have the same banner.
And it's true that ultimately, I have created a brand of myself.
For the most part it is just one of those jokes where I'm just like "oh my god I'm so
on brand" when I take a photo and there happens to be books in the background, or if I use
the word "frolic" in a tweet.
But it is true, I have created a brand of myself.
And for a while, even though I did joke about being "a brand", it kind of made me recoil
a bit because it does have negative connotations that are associated with the big money-grabbing
companies that don't really care about people personally, they just want all the money and
- you know what I mean.
However the side of me that wants to go into the marketing and publicity side of publishing,
especially in digital media, kind of finds it interesting because it works.
It's something that has been proven to work for ages now.
For example, on instagram, the people that have the highest followings tend to be people
who have themes and distinctive ways of taking photos that people will be able to recognise.
And it's just that sort of connection with brands and constructing an identity - that
crossover interests me, because it's kind of like you're making a product of yourself.
And that sounds like a bad thing, but really it's just what we all do.
It's not a negative thing because even if I do jokingly say that I've made a brand of
myself, that doesn't mean that everything on my social media isn't an accurate portrayal
of me.
But I do just think it's an interesting idea.
And even when it comes down to telling your narrative...it's pretty much impossible to
have a completely accurate, 100% portrayal of someone and their life, because it comes
down to privacy, interest and plausibility really.
Privacy because that person might not want to say everything that's going on in their
life - my dad just got back.
Interest because the people watching might not be bothered.
For instance this is a booktube channel, a lot of the audience are only here for the
books.
And plausibility because for someone to have a 100% portrayal of their life, you would
need 24/7 unedited video footage in which that person monologues every single thought
that comes into their mind.
And I'm pretty sure that's impossible.
So yeah, it's just - it had me thinking a lot.
I- I'm not quite sure how to round this up.
I do want to get your thoughts on it though, because there is a lot of negativity around
creating a brand and it's just interesting what your thoughts would be.
So come and have a chat with me down in the comments about this topic.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Other than that, I hope you're having a lovely day, and I shall see you next time with a
new video.
Bye!
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