Class notes: Online identity

Last night in class we talked about 2 main ideas:

1. What is that self that is (re)presented online? How does the self come about? Is the self something we have or something we do?
   This came about from the last 2 articles (Ellison & Gurmuck) on online presentation of “real” offline selves.
2. How is the self (re)presented/performed/enacted/created online? The concepts of performance and exhibition from the Hogan and Zhao readings helped here.

In the process, we also learned of some major theoretical frameworks that can help us understand (online) identity: symbolic interactionism, Goffman’s self-presentation, and performativity (Judith Butler).

I invited you to organize your thoughts around 3 main questions:

1. What happens to identity (self-presentation/performativity) when we take it online?
2. What research questions related to your own interests emerge? (there are many connections here that I hope you will explore in blog posts)
3. What does this all mean for your own personal online identity management? On this note, I invite you to watch this very beautiful short movie and let me know what you think about it. Please interact with this post by liking, rating, or preferably commenting. Remember that following this blog is an important class requirement, and so is online participation. I cannot know if you read it unless you leave some digital trace…