Social Networking Websites and the Construction of Identity.

Thomas Erickson claims that personal websites are created and used to construct identity. At the time the article was written the technology and culture of personal websites was just starting to be explored. Within today’s society the phenomenon has moved from personal websites to social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace. This essay will look at the ways in which Erickson’s notion of identity construction is evident within the media of social networking websites. To understand how identity is constructed, a comprehensive understanding of identity must be established. This essay will explore the humanistic theory of identity and discover how it relates to the social networking websites Facebook and Myspace.

There are many debates as to what constitutes identity and the self. The humanistic theory of identity claims that people have “a kind of double consciousness.” People have a social self that conforms to the social roles required of it, as well as a true or “background self which chooses to act out the roles and which monitors the success or failure of the performance.” Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell describe the relationship between the social and the true self as that of an actor performing on stage. The actor has two levels of consciousness, the consciousness of the character that the actor is performing and the “actor’s real self.” The self of the actor is removed from that of the character portrayed on stage, however it is still present on the stage.
The social self is fluid and can change quickly if the need arises where as the true self develops at a slower pace. The true self takes time to grow and mature; thus it is over the life span of the individual that the true self becomes fully developed. The individual establishes the true self through the “quest for self-fulfilments and self actualization,” as part of the social interactions and expectations of everyday life. Liliana Cabral Bastos, and Maria do Carma Leite de Oliveira claim that a large part of the identity of a person is an understanding of their “autobiographical continuity.” Due to the slower development of the true self it is through the true self that this sense of biography is expressed. The “stability” of the identity can be measured through the continuity of the biography that is communicated to others.
Psychologists have noticed that people act and hold themselves differently within different instances and situations. This observation leads to the idea that people act out different social roles that are required. Within the humanist theory it is the social self that acts out the social roles or personas. The roles executed by the social self include those within the family and education, as well as those in one’s professional, religious and recreational life. The roles are prescribed through the activities, behaviour and appearance that are socially accepted. It is through social interaction and discovery that the social self learns the expectations surrounding the different roles it must perform.
When unmodulated by a mature true self, the social self can be seen as a “victim of social circumstance” and shallow . Critics argue that, when on it’s own, the social self is a superficial representation of identity. This criticism does not take into account the importance of the social self in negotiating the role and social status of the individual within society. The social self learns the notion of “‘face:’ the positive attributes that a person claims for [themselves] in the course of social interaction.” The individual is able to view the positive elements of their identity in relation to those around them, as well as compare and question the identity of others. One media through which identity is constructed is through social networking websites.
Research has shown that people spend a considerable amount of time using, updating, and socialising on their social networking website. Within today’s society social networking websites have become exceedingly popular. Myspace has an estimated 66 million unique viewers, with 25 percent under the age of 18. A study conducted by Steve Jones, Sarah Millermaier, Mariana Goya-Martinez and Jessica Schuler found that of the 200 high school students surveyed, 81 percent used Myspace and were spending an average of 72 minutes per day “sending, posting and reading bulletins.” With such a large proportion of the population engaging in social networking websites it is important to construct a strong online identity.
Identity is constructed on the social network websites, such as Facebook, through a variety of means. A description of the individual’s identity is established through both text and image. Identity is constructed through the self-descriptive narrative that the individual reveals. The individual can reveal this information through various different categories. The ‘about me’ section generally gives a short biography of the individual. This will include past events as well as a brief summery of their current life situation and worldview. The autobiographical element of social networking websites portrays the true self of the individual. As such social networking sights help to build Bastos and Oliveira’s afore mentioned “autobiographical continuity”.
Identity can also be constructed through the various ‘favourite’ media that the individual reveals. The forms of media include lists of favourite movies, TV shows, and books. People often annotate this list, revealing why certain medias appeal to them and linking this to personal memories and experiences. In doing this, the user reveals more biographical information, allowing the list to become and indicator of identity.
One of the strongest tools used to construct identity on social networking websites is the image; in particular, the profile picture. Frederic Stutzman’s study concluded that around eighty percent of Facebook users included a profile picture on their profile. Within Jones et. al.’s study a similar result was found; 61.5% of the those that had a profile picture used a portrait as the identifying image while a further 14.4% had an image of the individual with a friend or partner.
For the construction of an online identity, the profile image of the individual is of great importance. When one navigates to the profile it is the first thing that that the observer sees. Jones et. al.’s study found that people quickly gained racial, sex and age information from the profile picture alone. The television program Triple J TV: The Hack Half Hour documents the life of sixteen-year-old Sophie, a prolific user of the social networking website Myspace. Sophie tells how she spends a lot of time dressing up and taking pictures of herself. After taking out all the blemishes in Photoshop the images go online. Sophie claims the success of the photos can be measured by the feedback that others leave on her profile.
One similarity between the personal web pages that Erickson describes and social networking sites is the ability to link to other pages. Erickson claims that on personal web pages one indicator of identity is evident through the links to “interesting people and places.” Social networking sight, Facebook allows people to ‘become a fan’ of various things. These things can range from celebrities to television shows and movies, from emotions to food and places, the weather or the seasons. The viewer of the profiles can gain an understanding of identity through the media that the individual feels is interesting enough to share with the online community.
The profile picture is not the only image uploaded onto social networking sights. People keep an album of images. In the case of Facebook, one may have several albums, divided into different categories. This album allows the user to add another layer to their ‘autobiography’ by including pictures of events and memories that are important to them. This may include parties, friends, weddings; images of ones own childhood or children. In publishing these images, the user reveals information about themselves, the things they enjoy as well as their personal history. These images are often annotated, both by the person who posts them, and the viewers, adding further layers of meaning and a deeper understanding.
The social identity created on social networking websites is often viewed as shallow or false due to its highly controlled and constructed nature. This author however, would argue that social networking allows for a deeper, richer identity. Social networking creates a platform on which all people can build and create an autobiography. In the past, autobiography has been limited to books, which lack the opportunity to grow and evolve, or to diaries that are often kept private and go unread. A page on MySpace or Facebook is ever evolving, subject to the influences of friends, family and society. This evolution is visible to the general public and thus becomes a true representation of the growing identity.

Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell comparison of identity to the actor on the stage is particularly relevant to the construction of identity, through the medium of social networking. At first glance, the ‘persona’ or social self, created on Facebook or MySpace appears shallow, just as the character portrayed by the actor is ‘false’. When one looks through this superficiality however, the ‘true self ‘ can be seen beneath just as an actors self is apparent even in the portrayal of another. As such, social networking not only constructs the social self; it creates a platform through which the true self can evolve.


Bibliography and References:


Bastos, Liliana Cabral, and Maria do Carma Leite de Oliveira, “Identity and personal/institutional relations: people and tragedy in the health insurance customer service” in Anna De Fina, Deborah Schiffrin and Michael Bamberg (eds.), Discourse and Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006,

boyd, danah, “Friends, Ftiendsters and Top 8: Writing Community into Being on Social Network Sites,” First Monday, Vol. 11, No. 12, December, 2006

Doyle, Brendan, (director), Triple J TV: The Hack Half Hour – My Face, Australian
Broadcasting Corporation, September 22, 2008

Erickson, Thomas, “The World Wide Web as Social Hypertext,” 1996, http://www.plaint.org/Tom_Erickson/Social_Hypertext.html (accessed 20 September 2008)

Jones, Steve, Sarah Millermaier, Mariana Goya-Martinez and Jessica Schuler, “Whose space is Myspace? A Content Analysis of Myspace Profiles,” First Monday, Vol. 13, No. 9, September, 2008

Jordan, Ken, Jan Hauser, and Steven Foster, “The augmented Social Network: Building Identity and Trust into the Next-Generation Internet,” First Monday, Vol. 8, No. 8, August, 2003


Potter, Jonathan, and Margaret Wetherell, Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour, Sage Publications, London, 1987

Stutzman, Frederic, “An Evaluation of Identity–Sharing Behavior in Social Network Communities,” International Digital and Media Arts Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2006 at http://www.ibiblio.org/fred/pubs/stutzman_pub4.pdf, (accessed 21 October 2008).

The blurring of realities.

Within the class the other day there was the suggestion that people who play games like “second life” can often loose contact with the boundaries of reality and confuse the two worlds. At first I thought that this was complete BS. How can you confuse the two realities? You are either at the computer or you’re not. There is either physical contact with human or there are words on a screen. But as I thought about it I found that within my experience there has been a blurring of realities.

Although logic will always dictate that there was no actual contact with the person as they are many miles away, there is still some sort of emotional connection. When I talk to people online in real time through msn, skype or facebook chat there is an element of reciprocation on behalf of the other person. They can answer all of the questions in real time and it becomes irrelevant where the person physically is situated in the world. It is the conversation that I remember not the medium. This being said in the ‘real world’ it is the information that is revealed to me by the other person that I remember. I remember that I spoke to someone and I don’t remember if it down the shops or on the phone.

To me I think that the virtual and reality blur when there is only superficial contact. I don’t mean this in a nasty way but simply when there is a general conversation that doesn’t involve any issues or conflict. I believe that this is more my sense of, what I believe to be, proper communication in such an event then a reflection upon the media itself. I prefer the face-to-face contact when resolving a conflict then words on a screen.

Tell me what you think.

Anonymity breads vulgarity.

As I trawl the Internet I have found that when people are able to be anonymous they perform crude and offensive acts. Where I have noticed this behaviour is at the “comment” part of sites like youtube.com. I don’t care that people behave this way but I was just wandering as to the reason why they feel they can get away with it.

If you read the comments after the video ‘Trent from Punchy” on youtube http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjC-vh06_c you will see that people are not afraid to vent their racist and elitist stereotypes. On user (freakytzank) says

“i live in roselands which is next 2 punchbowl, n i have 2 say he would b the cream of crop cos the whole area is just full of scums like that. FUkn pingasssss, hahaha best ambassador 4 canterbury area”

When I talk about anonymity I am allowing for the fact that you can see the username of the person. However this doesn’t offer any real world information. They are obscure (xitedbeava135) and gibberish and do not reveal the real ‘identity’ of the person. Without their real identity revealed to the world there is no consequence to rude behaviour. What can the website do? In my experience the worst that can happen is the banning and blocking of that username to that server or site. This proves to be a minor inconvenience and doesn’t stop the problem for people simply create another username.

I have a friend that plays an online war game where the player is part of a troop of soldiers that fight the enemy. It is set in a modern day country using modern day weapons, gear and machinery. For a while he found it entertaining to ‘hack’ the game so that he was able to see where the enemy forces were and to make his weapons more efficient. These actions were against the rules of the game and after about two minutes of such actions he was blocked from that server. To get around this problem he simply signed in under the same username to a different server. This proved to only be a minor inconvenience as he could continue playing the game as normal from then on.

The problem of vulgarity on the Internet is one that is not easily fixed. All the power in theory is in the hands of the website wizards. They can control who is allowed onto the site as well as the content of the site. People can simply change their online identity and continue their outrageous behaviour.

What is the media’s place in reporting the news?

These are just some of the things that I have noticed over the years, particularly highlighted within the last few weeks. Over the last few weeks there have been many issues with the American that has affected the world economies. How has the media influenced and contributed to these crises? And, another age-old question, what is the purpose of the media when informing the public about the news?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding of the stock market is that it relies on consumer confidence. My extremely simplified understanding is that people buy stocks and assets when they are confident that a good return and profit is possible. When this confidence is lost or do not supply a good enough return the stocks are sold off. Thus a stock market crash is when everyone looses confidence at once. I feel that it is important to understand the media can influence consumer confidence.

If you want to take an alarmist point of view, it could be said that the media directly influences consumer confidence and has the power to insight stock market crashes. By reporting in a hysterical sensationalist way people will become court up in a whirlwind of panic and quickly sell their shares. I have found that people act on an emotional impulse when there is money and high stakes involved. This point is highlighted when people committed suicide after the stock market crash of 1929. Money is highly weighted with emotions.

Mass media seems to have a very short memory. I am also doing history subjects and there is a saying that “the only thing that we learn from history is that nobody learns from history.” This seems to be the case with the recent stock market trouble. One day it is the end of the world and there is a huge crash, and the next consumer confidence is up and the stock market has evened only to crash the very next day.

Please let me know if I am on the wrong track here.

Record Labels find new ways to continue their reign of terror.

In the presentation that peter and myself gave the other week we discussed that downloading music is technically illegal, however people are not that concerned about copyright infringement. There is even an argument that by offering free music and downloads an awareness of the band will be profitable down the track. The theory is that after the band is well known people will spend more money on concert tickets and merchandise. I have found that this theory applies does hold up for me personally as I will spend money on tickets. Seeing a band live is sooooooo much better then listening to a recording.


These days bands and record companies are creating awareness around bands with a different media, one that is harder to pirate and steal. The video game. Playstation’s Guitar Hero games have breathed new life into many older bands that had gone out of fashion. Aerosmith used to be one of the world largest rock bands but haven’t released any memorable albums for the last decade or so. The Aerosmith Guitar Hero game has brought a new generation in contact with those old ‘classic’ songs.

Its not just “old” songs and bands that are profiting from Guitar Hero, earlier this month Metallica released their new album “Death Magnetic” in two formats. The first being the ‘traditional’ cd album format while the other was as a Guitar Hero game. It has been argued that Guitar Hero will introduce many people to Metallica’s music.


Guitar Hero has allowed many people to become excited about music for it offers an interactive experience. On the newer versions, the player is also able to play the drums and also sing. Now you are able to play games while rocking out to classic metal and rock from yester year. I could think of nothing better.

The music industry has managed to find other ways of getting around the copyright issues. By making music interactive and ‘fun’ the record companies have ensured that they are not going to starve and they can continue to be the soul destroying controlling conglomerations that they have always dreamed to be.

More information can be found at http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21896070/rock_games_battle_for_bands/1

Privacy and the Digital Image

What is the danger of uploading too much personal information onto the personal networking websites such as Facebook? One major criticism of Facebook is the lack of privacy. Every move and text that is written is publicised to all of your friends. Every move is open to scrutiny. What are the ramifications of this lack of privacy? One of the dangers of social networks is that people will unwittingly supply personal information that will be used by Facebook stalkers. However, if the Facebook user is aware of their digital image they can regulate how the social network is used.


I know that people will say “but the youth don’t think about their digital image and thus cannot regulate this private information.” If the stereotype of teenagers is a preoccupation with image, why can’t they control their digital image? The life of a teenager can at time be ruled by personal image in all aspects of their life. A lot of time and effort is put into their social networking profile. Media sceptics believe that there is a naïve culture that people are essentially good and can be trusted. Young people must be protected from the perils of the internet. I believe that young people have the ability to be sceptical of shady characters on the internet. Arseholes and stalkers are quickly sniffed out and blocked.

The internet is full of real dangers and shouldn’t be approached in a flippant or naïve way. People should be educated about the amount of personal information is digitally distributed, however, it shouldn’t be assumed that the youth do not know what is going on. It needs to be understood that online images are not something that are made flippantly. Great care is put into their construction. People are aware of the information that is provided online.

Technical Hitch

i just figured out how to use blogger. now the links work. i hope that you enjoy

Digital Identity: I am the Symbol of My Own Creation

A few weeks ago we discussed how we would create a public image of ourselves that could be used within the mass media. I believe that to make a successful image of ones self, one simply mustn’t tell all the gritty details. People don’t want to know the ‘real you’ they want to see the highly stylised image of you that can become a symbol. You have to represent something. To some Corey Worthington represents out of control teenagers and the dangers of the Internet and social networking spaces. For along time all the images that appeared of him within the media included his female retro yellow glasses and a hoodie. He became an icon and an symbol rather then a person.

One of the important elements to creating a popular symbol is to create an image to which the majority of people can relate. For many leftist alternative types, Che Guevara represents counterculture, revolution and freedom to the oppressed. The fact that within popular culture the only image of him is iconic helps to spread the cause and the symbol.



So, what identity would I want to create for myself? I would like to be perceived as a champion of counterculture and an urban revolutionary. I would like to spread a message of anti-establishment freedom within the world of art and urban life, similar to the English stencil artist Banksy who culture-jams the streets of the world. With the Internet I am able to create this image of myself and promote the work of urban artists who use graffiti to express themselves. But the reality of who I am as a person may be someone who a pro establishment rightwing ‘square.’

Identity can be constructed and propagated in the digital world, but these identities cannot be called ‘false.’ The fact that they were created in the first place is informative of the ‘true’ identity of the person. We all have our part to play within the digital world. Digital identities are valid identities for they point to what the person aspires to become. The brilliance of identity is that it is forever changing evolving and growing.

Advertising’s all pervasive reach.

How does advertising invade your private space? Yahoo now puts adverting material at the end of all emails. The presentation of the ads is of a similar style to the text within the email. The font is the same and there is a simple sentence that points to a web address where more exploration is possible. The once private forum of the email is now an avenue for corporate plugging. It is becoming harder to ignore advertising material. This breaking down of the boundaries of private and public space is becoming more and more evident within today’s society.

Advertising is absolutely everywhere where mass media is concerned. Channel Nine is the king of cross promotion. According to media watch, on the day that Jane McGrath died, the first two news stories that Nine ran on their Sunday News were a blatant plugs for that nights programs. The first was a piece that would appear on 60 minutes about the Wayne Carey incident. The second being a piece about the Corbeys that just happened to coincide with the documentary nine was airing. The Jane McGrath story was the third news item that evening. Advertising as news is a scary image of the future of information.

I like to believe that I am out of the advertisers reach but I think that I am just a little delusional. What stays within my mind with ads is not the brand names but the creativity within the ads themselves. The beaver ad is funny, (and gross) however I cannot tell you the brand from the top of my head. For the advertising firms I would imagine that a compromise has to be made between creativity and brand recognition. Most ads that are simply and image and a link on a website do not inspire me to inquire farther. They just aggravate me and clutter the computer screen.

Don’t even get me started on pop up windows…

Art Within the Digital Age

Elissa Baxter wrote an article entitles “Pocket Gallery” for the Green Guide that discussed the possibilities that new technologies have upon the art world. The article explored different applications that mobile phones have within the art world, including animated video, photography and the creation of music. The way that modern mobile technologies are constructed can include a quite sophisticated camera and, in the case of the iPhone, the addition of applications that allow the phone to become a musical instrument.
I became interested in the use of a mobile phone as a tool within the art making process when I heard an album that was innitially recorded on a mobile. The album was called “one minute songs and sounds” and is available for free download at www.apocketfullofstones.com/onesandzeros. On the album, every song was only about one minute in length. The length of the songs were determined be the fact that the phone would only allow that length of recording at one time. The recordings were made while on holidays overseas. The very portable nature of the mobile phone allows the creation of digital art to happen anywhere with a certain amount of ease.
A question that needs to be asked is; is the creation of digital art becoming more accessible to the general public? If so, is there going to be a large influx of digital art made with mobile technology appearing on the Internet?
I would argue that the general public may use the features on their mobile phones for happy snaps and fun, but, it is only those that are artistically inclined that will utilise the new technologies for artistic purposes. It is the way that art is created that is evolving within the modern age and the Internet allows for an effective delivery method. This is another example of a technology being
On a side note you should check out an Austrian music group that is mentioned in the Baxter article called iBand. iBand use their modern mobile phones as instruments. You can see a video of them on Youtube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoPgnvpPQg . The band consists of a drums, guitar and keyboards, all synthesised through applications that were downloaded onto their iPhones.

Life in a Mash-up Society!

Recently while I was doing legitimate academic study on youtube and I became very interested in the idea of the ‘mash-up.’ In music, a mash-up is a song that is seamlessly made up from pieces of other songs. Traditionally the vocals of one song are placed over the instrumental of another. When successfully fused, the song can sound faultless and a whole new and funky media is created. One very famous mash-up is Dangermouse’s The Grey Album, a cd that was banned by EMI for copyright infringement. The Grey Album fused the Beatles White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album. Initially I was interested in how mash-up’s applied to music. Many of the most current pop songs are remixed in such a way. Every media text can be used to create a mash up. Video mash-ups often combine two texts that are diametrically opposed in genre to create a sinister movie clip.

This is a clip made from the movies, Toy Story and Requiem for a Dream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1qihwMN0JM

A cool song that combines Britney Spears with Gwen Stefani.



The mash-up is also a way that society can make sense and laugh at the serious political and social situations within the world. There are many mash-ups that poke fun at politicians, most notably George W Bush. Many of these clips take political speeches and create a message that is different from the original.

Bushwhacked is a video on youtube that has seamlessly changes a speech given by George w Bush and makes light of the Iraq war.


George Bush serenading Tony Blair.


As I explored, I theorised that many film and TV narratives are accessed in a mash-up kind of way. Narratives are made up of many media texts and have become the way that stories are told within society, driven by mass media. In many cases the way that the whole story or narrative is accessible is only through many forms of media. In 2002, the Fox network aired a series called Firefly, which after one season was cancelled. The narrative and back-story of characters were continued through the media of feature film, comic books, and soon an online role playing game.

The nature of media today allows us, the viewer, to gain our information from many different sources. The mash-up is a societies way of venting and making light of everyday pressures. It is also a unique art form.

Is this the beginning of the end?

Within the first week of this subject the question was posed ‘how long can we keep on torrenting music and movies before people are prosecuted and charged?” I think that the question sounded more like “ how long can this heaven last?” but you get the picture. Within that very week an answer to that question appeared in the news.

The Age reported on the 4th of august that the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), under pressure by the film industry, had proposed that Internet service providers send warning letters to people who download movies illegally. The warning letters would indicate to the downloader that the Internet providers know what they are doing and that their activities aren’t anonymous. This technique known as a ‘graduated response’ has been trialled within the United States and it was found that nine out of ten users stoped their illegal downloading of movies after only their first warning.[1]

The question that needs to be asked is, is this approach going to benefit the movie industry or are the film studios just being to precious about copyright? In contrast, within the music industry, there is a very successful argument for allowing the free downloading of music. By allowing free downloads, a large amount of interest and hype can generated around a certain band that will lead to high ticket and merchandise sales at live performances. One example is the Sheffield band, the Arctic Monkeys, who when first starting out, uploaded all of their music onto Myspace, allowing fans to download their album free of charge before its public release date. When the Arctic Monkeys played at the Glastonbury festival, they had a large audience that rivalled that of the headline acts.

This is all well and good for the music industry, but the relationship that people have with movies and with music is very different. The music industry has other ways of generating income other then CD sales where as the movie industry relies heavily upon box office and DVD sales. I believe that the movie industry does have reason to be scared about online downloads and any way that this can be combated is a plus from their point of view. Perhaps these proposed warning letters will change the way Torrents are viewed and used within the future.

For my seminar presentation I am discussing peer to peer (P2P) and including torrents and Skype etc. I was hoping that if you happen to come across any articles or relevant news items regarding this topic that you could please send me a link or the relevant information. Thank you.


[1]The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/online-movie-fans-face-scrutiny/2008/08/03/1217701901151.html accessed on 4th August 2008