Thesis Title: Subtitle

Understanding the Self and Identity Online

There are many sources of the self, and self-presentation is not solely determined by whether one is corporeally present or not. Addressing theconcept of the ‘self’ as it relates to the online environment can be a complex task. With the advent of the internet, scholars and commentators became increasingly fascinated with the interplay between the self and computer mediated communication. Some authors such as Turkle celebrate the potentially liberating effects of CMC for self-presentation. Turkle argues that CMC gives individuals a flexibility and fluidity associated with the construction and presentation of the self, which was historically unprecedented. Turkle (1996) argues that the self is best understood through the concept of computer windows. An internet user

may have multiple windows open at any given time each containing a different, and unrelated activity. Turkle (1996: 14) argues that:

Windows have become a powerful metaphor for thinking about the self as a multiple, distributed system…the self is no longer simply playing different roles in different setting at different times. The life practice of windows is that of a decentered self that exists in many worlds, that plays many roles at the same time.

The flexibility and fluidity of self-representation described by Turkle (1996) also has attendant concerns about the authenticity of the self presented online (Baym 2010). Many of the concerns and comments regarding self-presentation online are associated with the disembodied identities and the invisibility of the body. Without bodies, the self is perceived to become less certain (Baym 2010). Traits that are easily communicated in face- to-face interaction such as gender, age and ethnicity are seemingly erased online (Baym 2010). This invisibility raises fundamental questions about trust and honesty. If people can potentially be anything, will they lie about who they are? Anxieties about deliberate misrepresentation online are closely linked to a lack of corporeal presence (Baym 2010). Without the visible markers of gender, ethnicity and age that are generally easily discernible in face-to-face interaction, identity claims are not falsifiable (Slater 1998). Previous research in environments focused on identity play, such as Multi-User Domains (MUDs), has demonstrated that people do not usually choose online identities that are radically different to their offline selves (Curtis 1997; Baym 2010).

This idea of the internet as a flexible medium in which to present the self, and consequently engage in identity ‘play’, has continued to inform related scholarship (Livingstone 2008; Lui 2008; Zhoa et al.2008; Mendelson and Papacharissi 2011). Thus, literature that examines the self and Facebook continues to place emphasis on the performative aspect of self- presentation, arguing that Facebook is a space in which identity, as manifested through self- presentation is deliberately and consciously constructed. This understanding of Facebook aligns with post-modernist understanding of the self, which is fluid, situational and often enacted through self-referential media (Gregen 1991).

Liu’s (2008) research into taste performances online could be used to argue that individuals who engage with social networking sites are primarily concerned with

constructing and performing a self that will read authentically to their audience. As such this literature focuses on Facebook as a setting through which a part of the self is consciously manifested. However, the theoretical framework used to explore identity online in previous research utilises theorists Goffman (1959) to emphasise the situational nature of the self. This chapter of my thesis focuses on the idea of the self because Facebook, as a technology, encourages users to present a complete picture of their selves; one that is reflective of the totality of their person, not just a partial or situationally invoked identity. In using this approach, I am moving away from previous understandings of the internet as a postmodern space (Adler and Adler 2008). Adler and Adler (2008) argue that the internet is a postmodern space since it is created by technology and populated by disembodied users who are detached from physical time and space.
Facebook provides a way of reconnecting the online self, of re-embodying and attaching it to a corporeal form that is locatable in offline places. Unlike other interest based online communities, Facebook users are known to each other offline. This configuration presents a rather modernist self in a modernist space; stable, persistent and intrinsically linked to offline relationships with friends and others, which are in part facilitated by mainstream social structures such as university and work. The extent to which users cooperate with this is varied and will be explored later in this chapter.

Facebook is aimed at collecting or invoking the most complete self-representation possible. The architecture of Facebook includes numerous prompts to encourage individuals to create a complete picture of their selves. As part of this research, I created a Facebook account through which I friended my participants. This account is rather lean and I have put limited information about myself on it. As pictured below in Figure 2, when I log in, Facebook reminds me (by way of a progress bar) that my profile is only partially complete.

Fig.1: Facebook requesting additional information to ‘complete’ my profile

Additionally, Facebook lists various interests down the left-hand side of my profile page, and pre-populates them with suggestions that are based on my location and my friend’s interests for me to select.

Fig. 2: Location and friend based interest suggestions

Facebook continually prompts its users to present the self, not a situational identity. What Facebook wants is the totality of an individual’s life, including family connections, relationship status, work, education, interests and more. While users can chose whether they provide this information or not Facebook still requests the self, rather than a self.
Also, Facebook appears to represent a centralization of self. Not only do these sites provide a way to centralize one’s narrative by creating a platform to communicate important (or banal) life events, they also centralize the connections in one place. It appears then that SNS seem to have more in common with modernist theories of self. That is, that the self is strongly anchored to mainstream social structures, social values and most importantly relationships with family and friends.