There's More To The Dolly Parton Challenge Than A Fun Meme

By De Elizabeth


LinkedIn. Facebook. Instagram. Tinder. No, we’re not just naming random apps; we're talking about the latest viral meme, “The Dolly Parton Challenge.”


You’ve probably seen it pop up on your newsfeed, as plenty of users and celebrities alike have gotten in on the fun. The premise is pretty straightforward: post four pictures of yourself, each reflecting how you may present yourself on the various apps. A professional headshot would serve well for LinkedIn, while family member pictures reign on Facebook. Add an outfit-focused image filtered through a VSCO preset for Instagram, then a flirty snap for Tinder, and you’re done. It’s been dubbed #DollyPartonChallenge as the singer was supposedly the first to post the mosaic herself, though other versions of the concept driving the meme have definitely circulated before.


And while the meme is by all accounts a fun excuse to unearth the archives of your camera roll, the Dolly Parton Challenge actually says a lot about the ways in which we use social media, because we do present alternate versions of ourselves from app to app. “Obviously we portray ourselves differently on different websites, however I think there’s routinely a semblance of truth to each profile we have,” Kelly, a 23-year-old from New York told MTV News. “LinkedIn is certainly a professional app, so I try and keep my profile up-to-date and looking ‘good.’ On Facebook, I’ll keep things family-friendly and almost professional-like. As for Twitter and Instagram, they’re two platforms where I can go and be myself: a poet, a woman, someone who loves memes, Harry Styles, and The Bachelor.”


Olivia, a senior at Loyola University, also thinks it makes sense for people to curate slightly different avatars on different platforms. “Everybody presents themselves differently in whatever setting they're in,” she reasoned. “Given how much of our lives revolve around social media networking apps, it makes sense that people show other versions of themselves to fit an app's culture and purpose.”


And it’s true; each app does have its own culture that might not directly exactly translate to another platform. (Can you imagine your great-aunt understanding “cats can have little a salami” in case you were to post it in a Facebook status?) Dr. Alexandra Hamlet, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, explained to MTV News that, in some ways, this is reflective of real life also. “If we go on a date, we are more flirty than if we're on a job interview — just like on LinkedIn, we're way more buttoned up and ‘professional,’” Hamlet, who is an expert in mood and anxiety disorders, mentioned. By that logic, it makes sense that what you post on Facebook might not directly make the rounds on TikTok, or any other app.” Kelly agreed, noting that “sometimes you really do have to put a certain mask up, especially if you’re dealing with family member or employers.”


According to Hamlet, it’s “healthy for human beings to have different sides of themselves,” and the Dolly Parton Challenge illuminates those different facets of our personality. Yet to some people, like Rafy, a 22-year-old from Florida, the meme also underlines how we may be losing sight of our authentic selves by flattening our personalities while in so several apps. She posited that “authenticity across platforms doesn’t exist,” and added that the meme reminded her of the popular Netflix reality show, The Circle. “People know that you cater to your audience, whether that’s presenting yourself differently on a dating app versus your family-oriented Facebook. I think the meme highlighted those gaps between reality and what’s presented on social media.”


The major difference between IRL and social media is that online, we’re always putting a calculated version of ourselves out there, no matter what the platform may be. “Every human is dynamic,” Hamlet explained. “But it gets a little bit dicier on social media as soon as the urge is to have a brilliant and really curated version of yourself, and there's not as much depth or explanation for the consumer of these photographs to know that...These aren't brilliant people.”


While some people might feel more of a urge to share certain embarrassing moments, or post photographs that are intentionally awkward, that requires a conscious decision to post those images. Between finsta accounts and “close friends” IG stories, there really are plenty of ways to display images with far less varnish. According to a 2017 poll by Truepic, 81 percent of respondents thought other people had posted edited photographs on social media accounts, which was likely informed by the fact that 64 percent mentioned they had done so as well. 48 percent of people aged 18-34 also mentioned the possibility of edited  photographs made them distrustful of dating sites (sorry to your “Tinder” meme square). People routinely posit that they are tired of seeing the filtered version of one another and aspire to be able to see more of what’s true, even if it’s messy or uncomfortable or imperfect. Olivia has been attempting to break down the walls that exist between the online world and the IRL one on her social accounts. “I used to take Instagram way also seriously and attempt to [have an] aesthetic, although lately I have been attempting to be more transparent and just post what I want, like I do on Twitter,” the 21-year-old said.


Rafy also wants to merge truth and perception on her Instagram page, however says it’s a lot harder than it looks. “I wrote a really real Instagram post at the end of last year,” she recounted, referring to a 2019 recap where she explained how the “most humbling year of her life” taught her some incredibly valuable lessons about healing and companionship. “I complex struggles and [tried to] build that proper and authentic sense of self,” she mentioned. Even so, she felt a certain level of filtering creeping in by virtue that her account is public. “I attempt to remember that my employers or students with whom I work could stumble across it. That’s not a barrier for posting, although it causes me to dial back what I imagine to be my ‘real’ brand,” she added.


Hamlet recommended that we’ve become conditioned to post what other people have conditioned as our "best selves" online because we’re often rewarded for it — a 2015 study found that pictures with filters are more likely to elicit reactions than untouched versions of the same images — which can make it a lot scarier to pull back the curtain. “If you post something also it begins to get a lot of likes, there's potentially the pressure to post another, which might get a similar quantity of likes,” she explained. “You get dopamine rushes; you get an increase in self esteem. It's very short term, however in the moment it feels wonderful. Long term, it can could realistically just be working against the person, because it creates a lot of pressure...And so, the curation starts.”


This is exacerbated for people of color, many of whom feel they must "code-switch," or modify their manner of speaking or presenting, to be successful within predominantly white social option, and especially inside of the workplace. A 2019 study noticed that, among Black adults with four-year college degrees, nearly half mention they often or some days feel the need to change the way they speak around others of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. How someone interacts within their own social circles may be different from the LinkedIn-adjacent setting of their office, although feeling an expectation to code-switch in your digital life furthermore to your professional one can feel like added layer of performativity, in which who you are is never perceived as being enough.


The hope to be fancied and the urge to “fit in” are totally typical emotions. And if we view each social platform as its own community with its own set of rules, it’s only logical that we’d shapeshift accordingly to be accepted within each structure. Just as different companions bring out different characteristic of your personality, various apps might do the same thing.


“It’s not the complete truth, although not necessarily a lie,” Rafy agreed. “We’re different versions of ourselves with different people, so why should that change with our social media? I think a lot of it is generational, where people who are still growing into themselves might attempt to discover who they really are by seeing what’s being perceived [positively]. Although I think it might influence who a person becomes.”


As for the meme itself, Hamlet noted that Parton’s beginning post had positive messaging, given that the nation legend captioned the image, “Get you a woman who can do it all.” “You aspire have the ability to be multifaceted,” Hamlet mentioned, noting that the ability to be professional and serious in one setting, while being fun and stupid in another is a sign of being adaptive, which in some cases can be a strength.


Nevertheless as social media becomes increasingly ubiquitous, it may only follow that we’ll start to re-evaluate how we use our apps. Soon considering that, the world wide web is no longer something we visit occasionally; we live here right now, all of the time. As our online personas become increasingly like our real selves — and vice versa — we’re forced to reckon with what that says about us, our relationships, and the way we live our lives. So yes, we may be different on LinkedIn and Facebook and Instagram and Tinder, yet that doesn’t mean we’re fake or telling a lie. We’re just not telling the whole story, 100 percent of the time — and if people aspire to piece the facets of your personality with each other, they can either follow you on every platform…or  perhaps just hang IRL.