The self online borrows on the work done by Henri Tajfel, John C. Turner and Sherry Turkle. Tajfel and Turner approached the self online through the development of Social Identity Theory, which looked at the concept of the self as a different construct depending on the social environment, the group dynamics, the means used to express the self and the position within the group membership structure.
A user of an online social network can not be defined merely by one universal “personal self” construct, but the individual may use different artifacts and different methods of interaction within the social environment to create several different online personas to manage relationships within different group dynamics. These different online personas maybe in conflict but closely represent the individual’s real-world beliefs, ethics, and interactions. Membership within the group creates a protocol of interactions; therefore the self-presented will typically fit into what the protocols demand while reflecting pieces of the self. The amount of information and the type of artifacts presented will change depending on if the individual believes that she or he is presenting under the guise of a personal, “regional” or national “level of self” (Turner et al. 1987).
Turkle expands on this definition of social identity theory by describing other factors that play a role in the development of the self online. Aesthetics is the starting point of this discussion as the “border between self and non-self” transcends the traditional perception of personal identity. Computers, for the most part, create a neutral arena for the atoms of ideas to progress into an evolved idiotropic thematic matter. This theme is supported by designing interfaces that are intuitive and also allow the user to work within the environment of the electronic effects. Individuals are free to tinker with in this arena to create simulations (e.g., programs, games, online social networks, simulacra, eta).
These simulations are manipulated as a method of dealing with the complex nature of the real world, as a method of disconnecting from the real world or as a method of understanding the complex nature of the real world. Simulations in this environment can force the user to immerse themselves within the realm of computer and work out ideas, issues, and models that would be too hard to work out in real life. The self online evolves from interactions with these simulations as these interactions act as a sounding board for the online social identity. Positions and expressions online are refined, personal ethics are challenged, the thought process of each avatar is exposed to outside forces and weathered away until a developed personality is revealed (Turkle, 1995).
In this expanded artificial universe of Facebook, concepts and perceptions of the self online are manipulated by the radical reduction of all interactions, all transmissions, all methods of input to binary means of encoding. Digital communication forces those who work in the medium to look for simple modes of expression to delineate themselves from the masses on the World Wide Web.
As online communication allows for more detailed methods of expression (e.g., the technological evolution from the textual means of communication on bulletin board systems of the early 90’s to the more colorful pictorial artifacts left online through a Mosaic browser in the late 90’s to the audio and video files available on many internet browsers and online apps); the context and complexity of new modes of online exchanges will also be expanded and advanced. This expansion and advancement will intensify the already massive onslaught of information that an individual must swim through every day to feel connected to the virtual world. Filters will be designed to not only help aggregate data coming from organizational newsfeeds but also will be forced to aggregate information from the individual’s “friends’ feed” (i.e., similar to the news feed that is on the front page of Facebook). This aggregation will lead to the development and entrenchment of microcommunities throughout the silos that are the online social networks and other types of sociable media.
It is through the microcommunities online that the self will have to be defined. This definition will come from the rituals, protocols and the accepted practices of each microcommunities, thus creating several possible avatars (Zizek, 2006). Beyond the discussion of the development of self online comes the analysis of how the self is perceived online.
One of theoretical works that help to frame the debate on the perception of the self online comes from Social Information Processing (SIP) theory. SIP was developed from the work of Joe Walther, a communication professor at Cornell University, as a method of dealing with the lack of social information present in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Since CMC lacks non-verbal cues to judge the intent and tone of the author, it takes a “sufficient exchange of social messages and subsequent relational growth” to understand or even “read” the author. This ability to read the “level of self” presented by the author comes from the understanding that it is possible for an individual to have multiple “social identities.” The reader of CMC looks for statements of “self-disclosure, praise, and explicit statements of affection successfully communicated warmth as well as indirect agreement, change of subject, and compliments offered while proposing contrasting themes” in order to create a profile of an author during an interpersonal exchange without face-to-face interaction (Walther & Parks, 2002, p. 533).
Using CMC with the intent of a broader audience, the reader is forced to put the information in context within the framework of the
