‘The presentation of self in the online world’: Goffman and the study of online identities

an article by Liam Bullingham (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) and Ana C. Vasconcelos (University of Sheffield, UK) published in Journal of Information Science Volume 39 Number 1 (February 2013)

Abstract

This paper presents an exemplification and discussion of the contemporaneity of Erving Goffman’s work and of its applicability to the analysis of identity and presentation of self in the blogging and Second Life (SL) contexts.

An analysis of online identity and interaction practices in 10 different cases of bloggers and SL inhabitants and of their online spaces is presented in terms of:

• expressions given;
• embellishment as a minor form of persona adoption;
• dividing the self;
• conforming and ‘fitting in’; and
• masking, anonymity and pseudonimity.

The key finding of the research is that, contrary to engaging with the process of whole persona adoption, participants were keen to re-create their offline self online, but engaged in editing facets of self.

This emphasises the key premise in Goffman’s work that, when in ‘front stage’, people deliberately chose to project a given identity.

It is concluded that Goffman’s original framework is of great usefulness as an explanatory framework for understanding identity through interaction and the presentation of self in the online world.

Equally, the online environment, with its enhanced potential for editing the self, can offer opportunities to contribute to the further development of the Goffman framework.

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