Week 2: Performing Me: Maintaining Visibility on the Social Stage
The lecture and readings for this week were particularly focused on the idea and presentation of online identity within social media platforms, and the costs of social networking that are often overlooked.
In the past, it has been easy to define identity as something directly related to a real-world person or body, however since the introduction of social networking, identity is no longer a concept limited to a physical self. Boyd and Donath (2004. p73) now describe online identity as drastically different and instead “mutable and unanchored by the body”; an idea of that allows for multiple online identities that brings into question the idea of whether our various social networking profiles are rather controlled performances of identity.
Social networking has gathered millions of members in recent years and has gained enormous popularity, although many still criticise the idea of freely sharing so much information and facing the risk of it being “taken out of a situation and replayed in a completely different context” (Hogan 2010).
Interestingly, Pearson (2009) argues that “the risks of inadvertent disclosure through disrupted performance exchanges are outweighed by the potential to manage networks, ties and social bonds more effectively” offering a more positive look on the benefits that social platforms can provide.
References
Donath, J. Boyd, D. 2004. Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal 22. (4): 71-82. Accessed March 12, 2011.http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/PublicDisplays.pdf
Hogan, B. 2010. The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online. Bulletin of Science Technology Society, Vol 30 no.6. Accessed March 14, 2011.http://bst.sagepub.com/content/30/6/377
Pearson, E. 2009. All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks. First Monday Peer-reviewed Journal on the Internet 14. (3): 1. Accessed March 13, 2011.http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2162/2127
Tags:
Chosen Blog, New Media, Visibility, Performing, Social, Presentation
