Rosen's Debate on Self Image: To Brand or Not to Brand

Jeffrey Rosen's "The Naked Crowd" suggests how the crowd, along with the media, creates a demand for exposure. He touches on the differences of 'sincerity' and 'authenticity' as well and explains the two terms in great detail. Rosen explains to the reader that the goal for a person to be sincere is to simply tell the truth at all times. Now for his definition of 'authenticity,' Rosen writes that all thoughts or feelings of an individual should be revealed. Rosen is hinting at how each individual should portray himself as person with no filter. With these two distinct traits, that Rosen wants humans to inherit and develop, everyone will become more trustworthy and more open while true emotions will be revealed.

Now with a more open society, everyone will seem to get along and relate through emotional connections. Rosen draws on this claim a little bit in his introduction about "Portraits of Grief." He discusses how photographs of 9/11 are depicted in the New York Times just days after the horrific event. Jeffrey Rosen tells the reader about how these pictures were supposed to give authenticity and individuality to each one of the 9/11 victims. However, he suggests how these pictures actually take away from the individuality of each victim and rather generalizes them and lumps them in specific groups or personality traits. The pictures were supposed to lay an emotional connection upon the readers of the newspaper but it did just the opposite.


Rosen transitions from these 'Portraits of Grief' and individuality to discuss a similar idea of "Personal Branding." What a reader can gather from Rosen's evidence is that personal brands are merely a competitive device. That is why these self-help books nowadays are so popular because everyone cares about their image. People are telling themselves they need to make a 'brand' for themselves because that is what separates them from another person in the competitive world that we live in. However, this branding of oneself can be a difficult thing to accomplish. The competitive, job-seeking individual must ponder what things he should keep private and what things he should make public about himself. Should he display his true emotions to everyone to seem more 'real' or should he hide them and only project positive emotions to seem more "marketable"? People should realize that it should not matter who they portray themselves as. They should get over their self-consciousness and realize that everyone is self-conscious about something. They should be who they want to be and who they are happy as and the right people will come into their life. This builds on Rosen's "trustworthiness" because you can't be honest with others until you are honest with yourself.