Transcript Creating Identity in a Digital Age: The Facebook Addiction Elizabeth Koenig What is Facebook?  www.facebook.com  “Social Utility”

Creating Identity in a Digital Age:
The Facebook Addiction
Elizabeth Koenig
What is Facebook?

www.facebook.com

“Social Utility”
You're Studying That?


I love Facebook
Others love
Facebook, too
Usage Statistics


70 million active
users (Facebook 2007).
average of 200,000
new users every day
(Facebook 2007).


sixth most
trafficked website
in the world
(Facebook 2007).
6.8% of global
Internet users visit
Facebook (Alexa
2008)

average usage
time of 20 minutes
(Facebook 2007).
Questions


What is the
attraction to
Facebook?
How do Facebook
users construct
their online
identities?
Methods

Snowball Sampling

Profile page
analysis

Interviews
Limitations


Privacy
Restrictions
Personal Bias
Analysis


Forms of Capital
(Bourdieu)
Looking-Glass Self
(Cooley)
Forms of Capital (Bourdieu)

Cultural Capital

cultural
connections that
represent you

why do you like
what you like?
Social Capital

The connections you have with others

Benefits (on a large scale):

Better health
Lower crime rates

Community commitment

Forms of Capital and Profiles


Use Cultural
Capital to fill out
profile
Profile is used to
gain Social Capital
Example
“I think in a way I kind of create the person that I
would want to present my self through, like
knowing, for instance, if someone was to look at
it [my profile] I would want them to see me the
way I wanted everyone to see me. Like, I put
myself on there as the best way that I can. And
I put things on there that I want people to know
about me. Opposed to like, things that are true
but I don’t care if anyone knows. Like for my
interests, I have lots of interests, but I keep
them as ones that I want people to know I’m
interested in.”
Social Capital and “Weak Ties”

Communication Tool

“Weak Ties”

Social connection
that requires little
effort

Good /Bad
“Computer Veil”
Positive Example
“it’s kind of like being at a party,
without the awkward part, like, you
can talk to anyone you want to talk
to and if you feel uncomfortable
talking to them you can poke them,
and so, it’s a really good way to feel
like you’re part of a community
without actually having any awkward
parts of being part of a community.”
Negative Example
“I feel that a lot has been lost with the way
we communicate now, like through email,
electronically, because I feel like a lot of
the things that people say they wouldn’t
have the audacity to say if they were
talking on the phone or face to face, so I
feel like communication has been
degraded in a way through depending on
the computer so much, making it less
genuine... “
Looking-Glass Self (Cooley)
Self Assessment in Three Parts:
Through the Facebook
Looking-Glass
• Read another users
profile
• Read their own profile
judging it through the
“eyes” of the other
• Judging
themselves/their
profile in reaction
Example
“sometimes I’ll go and look at groups of people
I’m with, and [think] like, what people from
home think about me and my friends here,
and what people here may think about me and
my friends at home.”
CONCLUSION!
How do users construct their
online identities?

Users display their Cultural Capital
on profile pages to create their
online identities.
Why do so many people like
Facebook so much?
 Users
 Users
gain Social Capital
can use the looking-glass self
to evaluate their identities
Photo Credits



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http://bp2.blogger.com/_2ph2upGQFUg/Rp8jW2feSEI/AAAAAAAAACg/77pmf
UKBY0A/s1600-h/29_3_facebook.jpg
http://www.collegeotr.com/images/blogs/d6f4650b38a21721af80d15b4c8ef44b.
jpg
http://www.kerching.tv/facebook.gif
http://www.profilepounder.com/pics/comments/online_friends/onlineFriends24
%5B1%5D.gif

http://www.studentsshopper.com/images/halloween/facebook.jpg

www.cartoonstock.com/directory/f/facebook.asp

http://www.nmubaseball.net/uscho/ch-halloween.jpg

http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20070612/wlface
book12/facebook_500big.jpg
The End
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Hey Thanks!

Dr. Ben Feinberg

Dr. Laura Vance

All who contributed to my data

Jes Wooten

My friends