Vulnerability in Social Media—Does Social Media Take Away from Authenticity?

BY MAHIMA RAMESH '26

Social media has emerged as one of the most entertaining and influential means for communication worldwide. While each social media platform can offer meaningful opportunities for connectivity, it can also pose a threat to genuine authenticity, due to a fear of vulnerability. The quest for likes and followers often leads people to carefully curate an online identity drastically different from their true personality. Inadvertently, the essence of unfiltered expression is ruined, yet it can be brought back through embracing vulnerability.

​One of the primary ways social media chips away at authenticity is the pressure to fit societal expectations. Fear of vulnerability due to criticism on social media causes users to filter their raw thoughts. People tailor their posts to contribute to trends or emulate the lifestyles of their admired influencers. While the constant pressure makes it unsurprising for people to post the best moments of their life rather than the mundane, it causes unrealistic expectations and creates jealousy for this perceived excitement. One relatively new social media platform is BeReal, which provides a two minute slot each day for a person to post what they did at the moment. In the beginning BeReal welcomed a more authentic side, since it allowed a vulnerable space when each person posted a raw photo of their life each day. Despite BeReal being an incredibly popular platform for about one year so far, over the last few months, people have lost interest due to the boredom of solely seeing day-to-day lives and seemingly random pictures. This brings about the question of whether staying authentic or filtering personal life can cause a bigger impact. Ultimately, when BeReal became popular, it demonstrated the potential of social media to act as a tool for people to showcase their vulnerability and choose to be authentic.

Additionally, likes and comments significantly impact authenticity. Greatly caring for the amount of likes or comments they receive on their posts, most people prioritize content that gains attention over content that represents their true interests and experiences. This is due to the fact that when a person receives more likes and comments, they will receive dopamine due to the positive feedback and approval from others that humans inherently desire. However, this cycle enforces a culture where people feel vulnerable about their true, unfiltered persona since they are unsure what feedback they will receive. Recently, some social media platforms, such as Instagram, have removed the feature to view the amount of likes received on a post, as this proved to be a significant issue of the past. It allows people to stop tying the self-worth of their social media presence to the amount of likes and comments they receive. However, people still prefer others to see the best version of their lives and the best pictures they have ever taken, displaying a standoff between the vulnerability of putting your true persona out in the open, compared to documenting your best moments. On the other hand, influencers and content creators think likes and comments are necessary, as it helps them curate content that allows them to get the most views, which subsequently creates an unrealistic expectation of a “normal” life to their followers. Although social media features contribute to the lack of vulnerability in social media, in order to create an environment where genuine connections can be made, it is crucial to embrace it.

Ultimately, in the quest for validation and digital popularity, the raw, unfiltered authenticity that makes individuals unique can be lost. By embracing vulnerability and creating online spaces that encourage open and honest communication, we can forge meaningful connections that remove the superficiality of curated online personas.