PERCEPTION IS REALITY:
THE
LOOKING
GLASS
SELF
Individuals develop their concept of
self by observing how they are
perceived by others, a concept
Cooley coined as the “looking-glass
self.”
According to sociologist Charles Horton Cooley
The looking-glass self
describes the process
wherein individuals base
their sense of self on how
they believe others view
them
Using social interaction as a type of
“mirror,” people use the judgments
they receive from others to measure
their own worth, values, and behavior.
According to Self, Symbols, & Society,
Cooley’s theory is notable because it
suggests that self-concept is built not
in solitude, but rather within social
settings.
no·ta·ble
worthy of attention or notice;
remarkable.
According to
Society in Focus,
the process of
discovering the
looking-glass self
occurs in three
steps:
An individual in a social
situation imagines how they
appear to others.
That individual imagines
others’ judgment of that
appearance.
The individual develops
feelings about and responds
to those perceived judgments.
In practice, the process
might look like this:
The rise of social media
makes the process of the
looking-glass self
infinitely more complex
Platforms like Facebook,
Twitter, and the like make it
possible to connect with
others in ways never before
imagined. However, this
exposure has led to an everincreasing number of
“mirrors,”
The cyber self is the version
of him or herself a person
chooses to present on a digital
platform.
A person may possess many versions of
the cyber self. Example: He or she may present a
professional self on LinkedIn, a casual self on
Twitter, or an artistic self on Pinterest.
These unique qualities of the cyber
self raise a host of psychological
issues and concerns
Individuals
may
experience a
greater sense
of urgency to
return to or
remain in
digital spaces.
All these consequences are more
severe when digital users are young
or in their teens.
*However, changes
to the social self via
digital platforms are
not always steeped in
such negative
implications
A study published in the Journal of Social
Media and Society, for example, describes a
host of positive outcomes that arise from the
digital looking-glass self.
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Results included:
*A sense of gained
confidence
*Enhanced creativity
*Overcoming of major social
hurdles
*Increased sense of selfworth
*A strengthened professional
image
*Feelings of altruism and
“helping others” through
their content
*Interacting in a positive
social space
When YouTube content
creators were
interviewed about their
content-creation
practices and its
influence on their sense
of self, they offered a
range of positive
responses.
Whether digital platforms are ultimately a help
or a hindrance to self-identity remains to be
seen. The human mind is still very much a
frontier of modern science.