Ethan's Social Media & Society Blog

Social media is a large part of our society today, making it one of he fastest growing outlets that people have at their disposal to share content with others around the world. Though there is a catch, with sharing this content there are many issues that come from it. These issues ranging from overproduction in marketing, addiction to these platforms, and the overwhelming shift of face-to-face conversations moving to texts seen on screens. These issues stem from problems that were unseen at the creation of social media, one being the process of identity work/performance. This process or theory of how we define ourselves through our cultural performances has been around since the beginning of mankind but what is making this a problem is the way social media has molded this theory, the representation of identity online stated by Lee Humphreys in The Qualified Self in part has led to most of these problems. The problem of how identity work/performance is made on social...

Using the prior data collected shown in the previous data post additional participants have agreed to be used in my research adding to the interesting trend I am able to follow with the data I have collected so far. Finalizing the number of participants I have been able to dive deeper into the understanding of identity performance on social media specifically over representation. This post will show the progression I have had in the collection of data giving a better understanding by categorizing each piece collected from photos, posts and reposts, to the smallest of things like comments and likes the accumulation of this data has given me a basis to follow with interpreting what it means to represent oneself online through traces and mediation. As I have finalized my collection of data in this data post through each participants 50 posts, the direction of my research has shifted to the textual interview portion of my project. I have recently just started on getting interviews lined up...

#MondayMotivation am I right? For those of you that may not completely understand the posts on that thread, I hope to enlighten you with the deeper meanings behind all the posts dealing with this hashtag. Although some may see it as a hashtag and posts dealing with inspirational words to get up on a Monday morning for work, there is some deeper meaning being lost in transit as you could say to the interpretation you are getting from the posts themselves. Choosing mostly viral posts ranging from large companies to the usual celebrity here and there I hope to portray a little more on what it means to really post on the thread #MondayMotivation. Breaking down my analysis I have chosen twenty posts from the thread that have similar meanings but breaking them in two, showing two very important parts of the thread that is not only seen on #MondayMotivation thread but any other thread if you look hard enough for it. Through the use of celebrities, sports stars, teams, and activists I intend t...

Selfies and other photos: Photos on linkedin: Participant 1- Had a profile picture. Participant 2- Had a profile picture. Participant 3- Had a account but no profile picture. Participant 4- Had no account. Photos on Facebook: Participant 1- 2 albums of photos one with 10 profile pictures in one and the other holding eight cover photos of either himself or activities that were common as photos. participant 2-7 albums ranging from 5-8 photos in each doing something active or a photo of himself. participant 3-10 albums with around 10-15 photos that dealt with family as well as herself and their activities. participant 4-70 plus albums in photos with at least 20 photos that pertained to something they did or of himself. Photos on Twitter: Selfies Participant 1: 18/125 photos were images of himself in a selfie. Participant 2: 11/124 photos were selfies of himself. Participant 3: 43/194 were selfies of herself. participant 4: 10/200 were selfies. Posts and reposts: Trend...

Going over the articles I will be using, I have formatted a plan to follow throughout my research monitoring specific posts and reposts on the media platforms of linkedin, Facebook, and twitter. Specific posts that will be put into consideration is the number of posts dealing with images such as selfies and other photos of the accounts user, retweeted, liked, and comments they have made towards posts. From the use of the four participants I have so far and three others pending at the moment I have collected data dealing with identity work being a factor in each of their posts. The posts being understood with the idea that each participant is performing their role and identity in terms of their real life via online social media. Using the acronym coined in the Ted Talk by Alexandra Samuel, ( Top 10 reasons to Stop Apologizing Your Online Life ) IRL(In Real Life) refers to the offline world most people see themselves being in dividing the two worlds but through the use of the three piece...