by Hanna D Szabó
Hanna Dorottya Szabó offers a brief introduction into the topic of social media and identity, starting off with Mark Zuckerberg’s stance on a single online identity. The video essay touches on topics from the push for transparent identities on platforms like Facebook and Instagram for advertisers sake, to the related dynamics of self-presentation – the conscious and unconscious aspects of displaying one’s online self. Concluding with a peek into Erving Goffman’s “symbolic interactionism”, and questionining the concept of authenticity in the context of the “connective turn” in social media. How can social media platforms want us to be our singular authentic selves while constantly forcing us to adapt to their ever-changing apps?
Suggested Literature:
boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of computer‐mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x
Goffman E (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.
Manning P (1992) Erving Goffman and Modern Sociology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
van Dijck, J. (2013). ‘You have one identity’: performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn. Media, Culture & Society, 35(2), 199-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443712468605
Acting out gender identity — Self-portrayal in digital media (Germany)