And the Award for, the Best Performance Goes to You…

Performativity touches every aspect of our lives, whether it’s how we go about courting someone, behaviours by sports teams and fans before a game, ritual processes within government buildings and courtrooms and so on. Celebrities have had an increasing role in performative activism for example, at industry events like the Oscars or Golden Globes, such as wearing a pin or dressing in a certain colour to draw attention to causes like the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements, or environmental and political issues like climate change awareness or gun control agendas. We can understand such rituals, events and identities as being governed by a code of performance – performativity as a behaviour or action undertaken with a specific audience and purpose in mind.

This article aims to explore the correlation between the rise of social media and performative action in our everyday life. How much of our actions are truly for us, or are we projecting our actions and behaviours outwards for others to see via online platforms? For what purpose, is it esteem and confidence, popularity, or economic gain? I recently saw a quote online saying, ‘remember when we used to say “BRB” all the time when we were online? We don’t say it anymore. We no longer leave. We live here now’. With the increase of the usage and impact of social media in our daily lives many people are consciously and unconsciously undoing, reinventing or perpetuating identity online through performative actions. How many times have you deleted an Instagram post or a Tweet if it hadn’t reached a high enough engagement level of likes or retweets and thus worked against a persona of popularity or respect for your intelligence or humour you may be trying to build. Furthermore, as the lines between online and offline become blurred, performative behaviour is increasingly seeping into our everyday offline lives and reality in how we interact within our social worlds. For example, performative friendships, altering your own actions depending on the social circle you are around at any given time. A basic example of this is thinking about how you may act with your oldest friends, who perhaps know you the best, and then how you act with newer friends. Performativity in this case works as signal systems of what framework of identity you are trying to fit within and portray; social class, financial status, health practices, dietary habits and so on.

There has been an emergence of workaholics, or ‘performative workaholism’. People working long hours and often showcasing their working environment and dedication by posting images, tweets, and motivational sayings on social media. Think of Elon Musk’s widely and enthusiastically spread hashtag, #TGIM, (Thank god it’s Monday) and the notion of “rise and grind”. Is being a workaholic “in” now, in the same way being intelligent in school is no longer a prerequisite of being teased? Perhaps we have the economy to thank for that due to the high competition for jobs, pay rises and promotions and the detrimental effect on lives of losing jobs. Making the conscious decision to stay late at work, unless you genuinely need to meet a deadline, is a performative action intended to highlight your dedication to the work. Surely this has adverse effects on mental health such as anxiety, and an impact on social and personal lives such as relationships and time spent with children. On the other hand perhaps many people enjoy throwing themselves into work and are the caught up in the cult of hustle. Yet I have worked office jobs before where every day without fail, even several hours after we have contractually finished being paid for the day, the entire workforce is still in the office, no one wanting to be the first to be seen to leave.

Social media influencers hugely engage with performative actions and identity often leaving the audience/the consumers reflecting on their own levels of affluence, perhaps affecting our mindset of always wanting more, and constantly comparing ourselves to others materially, financially or physically, whilst forgetting that big ‘influencers’ are being paid to showcase such luxurious lives. We fall into this trend of performative identity often posting images when we acquire material possessions like a new handbag or a new car, or document an upscale restaurant dinner on social media. Another major genre of social media performativity is performative wellness and the performativity of bodies and aesthetics. Arguably there has been a demise of A-Lister power, celebrities no longer holding the levels of influence they once had, with trends, desirable aesthetics and ways of living now being dictated by social media ‘influencers’. Who, if successful, are paid huge sums of money to showcase and try and sell unrealistic and often unattainable standards of living. Social media feeds are now inundated with wellness photos, quotes, statements, and discussions all with the effect of making the receiver question whether they are doing enough to keep up with such trends. If you haven’t posted a photo of your new self-care regime or yoga workout, did it even happen?

Certain performative wellness and aesthetic actions have not evaded criticisms of cultural appropriation, such as yoga, using sage and ‘smudging’. For example, the commercialisation of the practices work against their original purpose and meaning, and the cost of many Western yoga classes and retreats renders it prohibitive to many people. Furthermore, the people belonging to the origin cultures of these actions are not financially or materially benefiting from their traditions being used on such a vast scale, where ‘appropriators’ are. Smudging and using sage to cleanse spaces and energies is a practice taken from indigenous cultures such as many Native American and First Nation groups, rituals they have performed since time immemorial and have historically been oppressed as a result of their identity, with many traditions being outlawed by settler governments. As a result many indigenous people and allies have problems with this practice being ‘on trend’ without people engaging with this performative ritual understanding the origin, purpose, cultural importance or spirituality behind such actions. Similarly, this issue arises with dress codes driven by what people see on social media platforms as appropriate or on trend to wear in certain spheres such as face paint of tribal patterns and wearing indigenous derived headdresses at Coachella. These are performative actions with the aim of fitting in with the crowd by conforming to the aesthetic appearance for that social context without recognising that very action is perpetuating the harmful stereotype and misrepresentation of indigenous people, further belittling their identity, culture and autonomy.

There is also a huge amount of choices and products now available which adds to the overwhelming nature of engaging with this performativity: which diet? which vitamins? which beauty product? and so on. There is a fine line between positive and constructive self-care rituals or changes to your life, and anxiety triggers or chastising yourself for not going to the gym or doing your pre-bed meditations. Though continuous wellness actions would undoubtedly have positive effects on our bodies such as a sustained skincare regimen or yoga workouts, often the now obsessive nature of them can lead to the feelings of self-doubt, shame and anxiety.

In conclusion, I feel those who engage regularly with social media platforms and are influenced by performative actions result in a recreation of narratives of our lives in terms of identity perception both internally, and externally. My prediction is that the flood of performativity on social media will soon peak and then begin to decrease as people start to become more aware of the all-consuming nature and influence of online performative actions. Coupled with the rise in mental health awareness, decreasing the stigma around it, we will return to doing what is best for us, what motivates us, what makes us feel good and not bankrupt us in the process of trying to keep up with endless wellness, fashion and unobtainable material lifestyle trends. Performativity in many respects is often positive and needed, yet an exploration of mental health effects should be considered and a return to the sentiment of not changing who we are to conform to what is ‘popular’ and ultimately an emphasis on reclaiming ourselves and in effect, our lives.

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