Trends 2021: Multiple indentities in SNS and celebrities, what is being myself?

 

Nowadays, there seems to be more than one identity in people. Like a masquerade, we visit our SNS wearing masks. But with not only one, but with diverse masks always waiting to change according to time and space. This trend in SNS has created multiple personas in diverse situations. In fact, as we call it the Gen MZ, people of this generation are somehow ambivalent; their identities are personal taste-based, follow gender-free fashions, and deal with digital mythomania.

The thing is that people do not just carry one identity of their own. Rather, they would bring more than two or three characters in their lives and change it whenever they want. People would wear different masks in one specific social links, like having three different accounts on Instagram. Different characters have different social links, switching from Instagram to Youtube and to Ticktok or Twitter. Well, in academic terms, these new identities or characters are called ‘personas.

With different ‘personas,’ people can show diverse styles and personal tastes of their own. On the contrary, their identity seems to become very unstable. Specialists worry there’d be side effects lying on this, and we should keep an eye on it for winning over our true identity. I gotta ask. What is being myself? I believe there need to be some discussions made on this. With people constantly holding more than one mask on their hands, identifying one’s real self-persona will remain a tough question for everyone.

 

So starting from 2020, even celebrities would make sub-characters, different from their original impression to the public. They would naturally act as a completely different person in different names, and people would also pretend they know nothing about it even though everyone knows his or her real identity. And it would be a not-so-cool thing revealing the person’s real identity in any kind of ways. People sink into the character plays in TV shows, and wonder what would come as next. 

 Having multiple characters of one person have   spread out to TV shows in Korea. There was   this popular comedy show named 놀면 뭐하니,   it’s Korean of what do you in your free time?   And it kinda started from discovering how   many kinds of jobs one person can handle and   bring to success. With 유재석(Yoo Jae-Suk), a   well-known show host in Korea, the producers   would put him in jobs he never has tired of,   changing his name in different jobs. He first started by frying chicken and selling it, as a name of 닭터유(Doctktor Yoo), basically meaning Chicken+Doctor Yoo. 

He would then start learning music and make an album, changing his name into 유산슬(Yoo San Seul), named after a Chinese cuisine with his last name. The program pretty succeeded with making a music genre called ‘trot’ to rise again. The genre, which once considered to be old dated, is now reevaluated brining a nostalgic vibe to the people in 50s and over and regarded fresh to new generations. 

And this summer, carrying the retro trend of the 90s, Yoo Jae-Suck made a trio with 이효리(Lee Hyo-Ri) and 비(Be/ Rain), one of the most famous and admired singers of the time. The trio named 싹쓰리(Ssak-Three) launched an album with the melody and lyrics of the 90s. Rather they used character names in the trio than their original, well-known ones. ‘Yoo Jae-Suk’ was named as 유두래곤(Yoo duragon), intending to sound like G-dragon as well as making fun of the shape of his drooping nipples (pronounced as Yoodu in Korean). ‘Lee Hyo-Ri’ named herself Linda, characterizing a declining popstar from LA. ‘Be/Rain changed his name to ‘Be Ryong’, wanting to be one of the three dragons (pronounced as Ryong in Korean) of Asia. (Jaki Chan is called as ‘Seong Ryong’ in Korea). The album and the program both ended as a big success, with their performance giving nostalgic and fresh moments to all generations, and sharing all the process through the program. The  title of the album ranked top in Korean music playlists and kept its place in top 5 for the summer.

  This is a noticeable change. Celebs, before, tried their best to establish a particular concept, but what makes them conversely try to make different characters now? Well, I suppose that comes from people making different characters of their own. People now consider celebs having multiple characters to be interesting because they’re all doing it as well in their lives. Office workers these days, are not the same person when they’re home, students also have different identities in school and in SNS.                                                          

 People have found that their identities in personal preference or taste is more meaningful than their career identities. Conventional standards like differences in age or sex are getting it’s boundary point blurred. People having multiple role plays in their lives are finally able to take off their ‘social masks’ that have oppressed them. Now, isn't there need to be a new criterion on what self identity is? I believe we need a general understanding that one's self identity is not just confined in one, but layered with many different appearances in each individuals. 

 @Consumer trend insights 2021/ @Googe images