Venting a Form of Shaping Identity?

By analyzing social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry Messenger on a daily basis I have noticed that majority of individuals see these services as a platform to vent about almost anything. The question is whether or not this is a good or bad thing.

For instance, when people are happy, sad or angry, these emotions are publicly presented to an audience taking in the information and construing it in a way that THEY understand. Because social networking is a virtual sphere, it is inevitable that people may misinterpret the reality of another’s expression. Misconception of ones identity is thus the result if not interpreted objectively or with the knowledge of contextual background.  

Status updates evident of condensed emotions extracted out of context, cause audience to infer their own meaning behind the initial emotion. Hence building and constructing an identity or impression of the other.

The disadvantages of venting are self explanatory, as people may view an individual to be someone he/she is not. For instance when people are in a state of rage they say things that they do not really mean and find social networking to be the perfect phenomenon to express their anger. Positive and happy venting may not be all that bad, personally speaking I find positive and happy expressions to be some what inspiring and often motivational.

Even though individuals vent about how happy they are, it may not always give off a positive impression towards the audience. For example, an individual could be bragging or boasting. This may be a positive expression for the individual, where on the other hand the audience may see this individual as being full of him or herself.

The way in which we use our words plays an important role in the construction of our identities. Sometimes we are unaware of it, and sometimes our emotions gets the best of us that it becomes so easy to vent over these networks with the intention of gaining response. This is not always the best form of communication as we need to learn where to draw the line between the virtual world and reality. Whether people gain from venting or not, the reality is that it may have an effect on their identity.


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