Provisional title
Liquid Presentations of Self Online: Teenage Girls and their Constantly Changing Identities
Key Words
Presentation of Self – Liquid Modernity – Identity – Web 2.0
Background
This research will examine how the internet facilitates liquid presentations of self – that is, how people can use Web 2.0 sites like myspace, facebook, twitter, blogs etc to present an image of themselves that other people will see, and to not only have control over what this image is, but also the ability to change it however and whenever they please. The theories of both Zygmunt Bauman and Erving Goffman are extremely useful for understanding identity in this way.
The explosion of Web 2.0 applications has changed the way people use the internet and communicate with others. Creating profiles on myspace, or writing blogs, amongst myriad other things, allows users to give others an ‘insight’ into who they are. This research will demonstrate how this insight is a constantly changing performance of identity controlled by the individual. In relation to this, Web 2.0, Bauman and Goffman will be shown to be interlinked and connected to one another. Bauman’s notion of liquid modernity posits that life is in a constant state of flux, so that things change faster than the time we need to get used to them. In such a society, people’s identities are destined to follow suit (Bauman, 2005; Bauman 2004). Goffman suggests that when interacting with others, individuals attempt to manage or control the impressions that are both ‘given’ and ‘given off’ using a range of dramaturgical techniques (Goffman, 1959: 2). This occurs as a result of individuals actively constructing a sense of self that they wish to portray to others – their ‘presentation of self’. Web 2.0 grants people the ability to present their identity to others exactly how they wish others to see them, as well as the possibility to change this presentation when life or situations change.
Aims/Purpose:
More specifically, this research will examine how teenage girls use the platform of Web 2.0 applications to perform their identities, and how and why they change this presentation on a constant and continual basis. It aims to explore the reasons behind decisions that are made when creating this liquid presentation of their identity.
Genre
I will be presenting my research in a blog. I believe this genre is appropriate to my topic, as my focus will be on the internet, and using a blog will allow me to link relevant things to my posts.