There is an interesting tendency online in which many users post film stills on their

profile as if they are speaking through the character of the still they post. This
tendency most prevalent in blogging sites such as tumblr in which users usually
repost material from other users in their profile. Many, if not the most, of the users
that use this technique to express their self, post film still images that are
negative either self!diminishing, self!sarcastic or expressing a negative emotion
about themselves.
There is the question, why one feels the need to diminish or express their negativity
through film stills. "elow # am using social psychological terms as well as
psychoanalysis to dig into that meme.
What is the Self?
The definition of the self is indeed a very complex sub$ect in social sciences. %ome
believe that the self is rather a complex structure of ever changing processes and
perceptions. &thers think that the self is defined by a sense of belonging of one's
thoughts and emotions. &ne's feeling of happiness for example has a sense of
belonging (my happiness belongs to be). *nother definition is the self!focus
definition, is our conscious focus on a particular thought or emotion we feel, so for
example while walking in the nature even though # may feel happy # might focus my
attention on my walk and my surroundings instead of focusing my attention on my
emotional state. * fourth definition of the self is that of a stable representation + a
pro$ection ! of the self as having some particular qualities (happy person, sad person,
etc,) for example the belief that when # am walking # am a happy person. *ll the
above definitions of the self though they can be categori-ed under two basic
categories. a. an ongoing sense of self!awareness and b. stable mental
representations, something that the psychologists /illiam 0ames and 1eorge 2erbert
Mead were describing as the #' (as a sub$ect) and the Me (as an ob$ect). %o here the
one is the self!awareness concept in which the self is a conscious being that acts,
and the self!concept that is the self as an ob$ect of specific mental
representational qualities and images that can be described by the physical, social,
psychological and moral properties of the self in accordance to its cultural and social
context. These self!concepts can be described by memory (# remember being this
happy person then,) or by semantic representations (# am a happy person).
Meanwhile a third and more abstract definition of the self could be based on personal
concepts of permanence or change such as a belief that. # can be again this happy
person, or # will remain sad because that is who # am.
%ocial 3sychologists %edikides and %kowronski in their research about the self, they
borrow the basic definition of the self as # and as Me but they also add a third
category that according to them is part of only human reality and they call symbolic
self. More specifically, according to the same, the sub$ective self could be
described as the capacity to distinguish one's self from the physical and the social
environment while the ob$ectified self is an organisms capacity to become the
ob$ect of his own attention for example when one knows that he knows, or
remembers that he remembers etc.
/hile the sub$ective self is a fundamental level of understanding that all species have,
and even though the ob$ectified self is a level of self!understanding that fewer
species have (primates, dolphins, elephants), %edikides and %kowronski distinguish a
third kind of self understanding, that is unique to humans. This kind of self is the
human's capacity to mentally represent the self by using abstract, lingual and
symbolic representations that mediate the individual's demographic, physical or
behavioral characteristics to the cultural semantic sphere. That self is called the
symbolic self. The symbolic self has been emerged in the human society as a need
to seek and analy-e information that are useful to the person in order to manipulate
and understand the dynamics and the relationships between the self and the others in
the society as a method of survival within that society. #n their theory about the
symbolic self, they distinguish three different motives that use, search and manipulate
this symbolic information, and as a consequence establish and reestablish the
symbolic self in the society. They are. the valuation motives (motives that manage
the value of the self within the society), the learning motives (self!improvement and
self!assessment motives that are used to acquire self!knowledge as well as knowledge
to improve the self) and the homeostatic motives (used as information seekers that
strive for consistency of the image of the self positive as well as negative).
The positivization of the Negative self value
*s mentioned earlier, the symbolic self is maintained through three basic motives, the
valuation motive, the learning motive and the homeostatic motive. The valuation
motive can be described by two basic tendencies. the self!protection and the self!
enhancement tendency.
The self!enhancement tendency works as a filter and magnifier of information that is
favorable to the self while the self-protection tendency is discarding, discrediting or
negates information that are unfavorable to the self. 1enerally, what's being
understood here is that people strive for positivity and avoidance of negativity.
3sychoanalytically negativity is a term that denotes an absence an absence
located in the self!image, which is caused by an invalidation of an aspect of the self!
image by some social other. #nvalidation thus denotes a value in the self that has
been devaluated thus creating an absence. This absence because it threatens the
social value of the symbolic self, it activates the valuation motives (see above) and it
is trying to be filled with new information that would magnify or enhance the self in
order to fill the gap . "ut because the negative self is already part of the self!
perception, an attempt to fix that gap with positive ob$ects would cause an
absence anew in the self, something that the cultural psychologists refer to as a
rupture that feels like losing one's self. #t would be like trying to tell their self that
what their self!image is (a negative self!image) it is actually a positive self image and
thus creating in them an inconsistency that would create an absence, invalidation
within invalidation + what they experience is not what it is.
Meanwhile that same phenomenon corresponds to the homeostatic motives' strive for
self!preservation. "ecause of that the self will use a different method of valuation, that
of ideali-ing the negativity. That ideali-ation of the negativity is what it gives
negativity an essence, an identity a social role that fills the gap without causing
a rupture. 4outh cultures like the emo or the goth cultures that romantici-e
negativity, pessimism and negative emotions, something that probably has its roots
in # that psychological phenomenon.
#n simpler terms, when the self has a negative connotation by the other it tries on
the one hand to preserve and sustain that negative self!perception in order to avoid
rupture from occurring, and on the other hand it tries to ideali-e or romantici-e this
negativity in order acquire social value as a mechanism of social valuation. %o, by
doing that, ultimately the users that use negative film stills in their profiles try to
enhance their self and at the same time preserve their self!image.
#n order to see that mechanism let me refer to extreme cases of feelings of emotional
invalidation such as sufferers of the "orderline 3ersonality 5isorder. %ufferers of
"35 have trouble defining themselves, they constantly describe feelings of
emptiness and they exhibit symptoms of inconsistency in their self!image and
identity. They also often describe that they were emotionally invalidated by their
near social environment by the use of shaming, criticism and punishment. These
invalidating practices work as an opposite mechanism from the self!enhancement
motive. "ut because they experience their self as fundamentally bad they learn to
fill the gap mostly by ideali-ing negative, self!punishing behaviors such as
cutting. *s they describe this self!destructive behaviors they often give them a
sense of self, or an identity, or something to feel in order to cope with feelings
of emptiness. This emptiness they describe is in fact a devaluated sense of self
+ a negativity or absence, and because they either feel numb (don't feel their self)
or they perceive their self as fundamentally bad, they try to give their self an identity
(to enhance their self!image), through the positivi-ation of self!destructive
behaviors.
Internet Identity and Film Stills
*s we have seen above, there is a dipole that strives for ideali-ation of the symbolic
self and at the same time striving to preserve that symbolic self in order to prevent
rupture from occurring.
There is an interesting phenomenon on the internet, where the user posts on his
internet profile different film stills from the movies +most of the time with subtitles +
that seem to speak for the user. The user posts specific snapshots that are taken from
free-ing a movie scene, that seen to correspond to certain statements that the user
wants to make + consciously or unconsciously + about him6her self. 7irst of all, we
must acknowledge that these film stills are part of the symbolic self of a person,
because they enclose a cultural, semantic message that is found in the narrative of the
story of the movie, in the role of the character, in his body language or in what he says
and to whom. 1enerally it is assumed that the receiver of the message had seen the
movie, thus he will understand the references.
# think that these references to the movies have to do with the aforementioned
motives for preservation and valuation, and that the film stills are either used to add
value to a considered negative aspect of the symbolic self or to preserve it. .
*s said above, the symbolic self strives on the one hand to become as more
acceptable by society as possible ! something that %edikides and %kowronski describe
as the valuation motive of the symbolic self + and on the other hand is governed by an
avoidance of rupture and therefore a tendency to cling onto that self!image because
they gives him a sense of self. This dipole creates anxiety in the person that is being
solved by the ideali-ation of the negativity of the person. This ideali-ation is achieved
by exalting or romantici-ing their negative emotions in that case, through the use of
the film stills. Therefore, as it happens with the bpd patients, the person will no longer
feel empty when he transforms this emptiness into something, a film still.
Through the identification with a media persona, the user normali-es or
positivi-es his sense of the self. The main characteristic of the media sphere is that
it offers normali-ation or a romantici-ation of sub$ects that are considered
negative.
Through that normali-ation these images give a sense of validity to the
invalidation of the user's behavior. # feel bad (negative), but this feeling responds
to the same feeling that this great character in that movie felt, therefore my story is
as great as his story (positive) . #f one would consciously tell us what he is doing by
posting these images would tell us. "ecause # feel bad6shameful6re$ected for my
action (invalidation) # show you this image that validates my sense of self by
transforming the negativity # feel into the positive narrative of the story.
#n general what we are doing when we post negative film stills, we are validating
our negative self!image by living through the narrative of the story they represent
through their posts and consequently $ustify, normali-e or exalt their sense of
self.
!amples"
#sed to validate emotions"
The snapshot above from the movie 8eon the professional is portraying a teenager
girl with a sentiment of melancholia in her eyes, looking towards a person that is
supposed to be located opposite of her. "ecause her ga-e doesn't meet us, which give
us the impression that we are apart of the story, that we are invisible somehow, and
consequently that we are not separate persons from the persons of the story. 7or
example, if her ga-e was coming towards the viewer that would create a feeling of
separateness to the viewer (she sees me therefore # am a different person) and thus it
would prevent any identification with the character. That's the reason that in most
movies the character never looks into the camera.
"y doing that, the viewer can easily identify with her and validate his6her negative
emotions through posting that picture on his6her online profile. #t's like he6she lives
through the narrative of the picture and pro$ects his6her self on the ideali-ed image
of the important character of the story, so that this negative emotion is exiled and
becomes an ideali-ation of the self, something that preserves the consistency of the
self on the one hand while on the other hand he enhances the self!image.
There is another tendency in film still posts on the internet, where the user borrows
the character as his persona to say something to provocative. "ecause the self is
sensitive to re$ection and criticism, he uses the film still in order to create value for
the symbolic self thus it is being used as a valuation motive, while at the same time
the image works as a homeostatic motive by sustaining the self!image and its beliefs
(2e doesn't care what they think).