Data Post (Round Two) Continued
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 via direct message on Facebook to allow for textual transcription time before the submission of the final paper. Now that a summary has been given of what I have been doing with my research, here is an overview of everything I have collected so far and the observations made from categorizing photos, posts/reposts, and comments/likes of each participant.
Adding the new participants data first:
Participant 5
Linkedin:
Does not have one
Twitter:
Does not have one (deactivated)
Facebook:
Photos:
59 photos all with her in each one whether with friends or a selfie
Posts and Reposts:
A relatively new account with only 11 posts (Either congratulating someone, talking about an event, or a location)
Comments/Like:
Consisted of likes and comments replying to every follower that commented on her post.
Overall: The photos, posts, and likes/comments all pointed to the same representation of a person online mainly to connect with friends and share their accomplishments in life, which was an interesting representation compared to the other participants representations so far.
Participant 6
Linkedin:
No linkedin
Twitter:
No twitter (deactivated)
Facebook:
Photos:
81 photos with 9 of them being cover photos or profile pictures others consisted of locations, events, and group photos where he was tagged by another user usually his friend on Facebook.
Posts and Reposts:
6 of the 50 posts on his timeline were his, usually photos of events. Other photos were tagged photos from other users that had him in their photos
Comments/Likes:
Most activity was found in the comment section of the posts that he was tagged in, with every post, all 44 of them either having a like or comment in the reply section.
Overall: Another great addition to the participants to the group giving another glimpse in statistical data going against the curve and representing himself in a manner that follows his online image, where he connects and comments on all the posts he is tagged in showing his connection and the importance of social interaction with friends.
After collecting this new data I began the categorization of said data:
*Note: 50 posts for photos, 50 posts for posts and reposts, and 50 posts for likes and comments (Splitting them up into separate data)
Linkedin:
As linkedin was a unused item besides the connections made on the platform, these accounts were not a gold mine for information but on the contrary a viable source for later questions of why there was not as much representation going on, on this media platform compared to others.
Twitter:
Participants 5 and 6 accounts were deactivated by them which I will go in depth when the reason becomes available to me after I interview them.
Categorizing Photos:
Groups:
Participant 1: 28 of the 50 were used to connect to teams and friends he was apart of at some point in time.
Participant 2: 6 of the 50 were photos of groups he was apart of in school, sports, etc.
Participant 3: 11 of the 50 dealt with groups such as teams she has been on.
Participant 4: 1 of the 50 photos was of a group he belongs to, a coaching staff.
Relationships:
Participant 1:1 of 50 were of a prior relationship with a significant other.
Participant 2: 1 of 50 again of a relationship.
Participant 3: 16 of the 50 were relationship photos dealing with best friend commentary to go with most of them.
Participant 4: 13 of the 50 had a relationship but mostly work related, colleagues
Interests:
Participant 1: 21 of the 50 photos were over interests such as sports, politics, and lifting.
Participant 2: 43 of the 50 photos were of interesting photos and memes he wanted to share.
Participant 3: 23 of the 50 photos were of she had in showing something off like a dog, or hobby.
Participant 4: 36 of the 50 photos were of interests he had such as sports teams.
Categorizing posts and reposts:
Popularity:
Participant 1:8 of 50 were posts retweets that were trending.
Participant 2: 21 of 50 were trending posts that he retweeted
Participant 3:12 of 50 consisting of trending posts retweeted
Participant 4: 30 of 50 were based on trends
Connecting to post personally:
Participant 1: 17 of 50 were posts and reposts that connected to his life in a certain way.
Participant 2: 5 of the 50 were posts that meant something to him, letting his feed know from either a post or retweet.
Participant 3: 26 of 50 were personal posts, sharing on a level to connect with her feed
Participant 4: 15 of 50 dealt in personal posts that meant something to him.
In the interest of sharing with friends:
Participant 1: 25 of the 50 posts were over topics meant to be shared by the participant, from funny gifs to sports recaps
Participant 2: 24 of the 50 posts were meant for friends to connect with them over posts and reposts.
Participant 3: 12 of the 50 were shared posts mostly tagged with @'s
Participant 4: 5 of the 50 were of things that caught his eye like sports.
Categorizing likes and comments:
Connects to their personal life:
Participant 1:15 of the 50 were posts that connected to him.
Participant 2:14 out of the 50 were used for likes that went to posts that were relevant to his own life experiences.
Participant 3: 37 of 50 were likes that were posts that seemed to have an impact on her personally
Participant 4: 3 of 50 barely any personal life connections but with work
Connecting with friends:
Participant 1:8 out of the 50 were comments replying back to friends online.
Participant 2:10 out of the 50 posts were comments made to friends about certain posts.
Participant 3: 6 of 50 were comments made to tweets she was tagged in and replied to.
Participant 4: 8 of 50 mostly dealing with work related friends sharing posts and commenting on said posts
Interesting to user:
Participant 1: 27 of the 50 were liked posts that I guess he enjoyed or thought was noble enough to like it and be able to look back at it in his like section.
Participant 2: 26 of the 50 were liked due to interests or things he liked popped up on his feed and gave it a like.
Participant 3: 7 of 50 were random posts that seemed to interest her at the moment.
Participant 4: 39 of 50 were likes that were of posts that interested him such as politics and sports.
Facebook:
*Due to inactivity of participants 1 and 2 for duration they have been on Facebook there was no data to be collected besides photos and from the photo albums.
Categorizing Photos:
Groups:
Participant 1: 12 of 46 photos with him being on teams.
Participant 2: 18 of 37 photos of him being on sports teams
Participant 3: 10 of 85 in sports teams
Participant 4: Around 400 of the 1000 plus photos is groups or teams as a coach
Participant 5: 1 of 5 was apart of a team
Participant 6: 11 of the 77 photos were of groups with school studying abroad and other school societies
Relationships:
Participant 1: 5 of 46 being from family and old relationships
Participant 2: 7 of 37 were of family and old relationships
Participant 3: 66 of 85 being of family
Participant 4: around 200 were of family
Participant 5: 2 of 5 were of friends
Participant 6: 30 of 77 were of friends and family
Interests:
Participant 1: 29 or the rest were photos of himself doing what interested him like sports and school.
Participant 2: 12 of 37 were of interests like hanging out with friends and action photos of playing sports
Participant 3: 9 of 85 over hobbies and adventures that interested her
Participant 4: the rest of the 1000 plus photos were a mix of interest like hobbies, events, and sports
Participant 5: 2 were of interesting places she had been
Participant 6: 36 of the 77 were interesting things and places he had been that meant something to him to share.
Categorizing posts and reposts:
Popularity:
Participant 3: 0 posts went to popular trends
Participant 4: 6 of the 50 were posts dealing with popular issues.
Participant 5: No popular trending posts
Participant 6: No popular trend posts
Connecting to post personally:
Participant 3: 17 of the 30 recently posted were personal posts about subjects that were important to her
Participant 4: 18 of the 50 were posts dealing with personal issues
Participant 5: 11 of 11 were personal posts like graduation to accomplishments/events
Participant 6: 3 out of the 50 were personal dealing with important trips/school events
In the interest of sharing with friends:
Participant 3: 13 of the recent 30 were posts that were over interesting subjects that she wanted to share with her followers
Participant 4: the rest of the 50 (26) were things he shared to help awareness for his connections/friends
Participant 5: No interest posts were found
Participant 6: 47 of the 50 or the rest were of mainly tagged posts to him sharing interesting posts by not just himself but his friends as well.
Categorizing likes and comments:
Connects to their personal life:
Participant 3: Looking at the first 50 comments/likes, only 2 refer to personal life.
Participant 4: No likes or comments go to personal life
Participant 5: Half of all likes and comments stem from personal life, around 39 and growing due to her latest post
Participant 6: 3 of the 50 likes and comments go to personal life, due to most of it being responses to friends posts and tags
Connecting with friends:
Participant 3:Out of the 50 about 14 of the posts refer to friends posts
Participant 4: 42 of the 50 are likes that go to friends post appreciating their posts by acknowledging it.
Participant 5: about half of 39 remain in old post, mainly saying thank you to everyone congratulating her on her accomplishment posts
Participant 6: The rest of the 50 revolve around friends posts and replying back and forth/liking their posts and socializing over the post.
Interesting to user:
Participant 3: The rest of the 50 (34) lay in discussion posts, with her comments talking about interesting subjects
Participant 4:8 of 50 are comments that are here and there on friends posts about subjects that he wants to share his opinion on.
Participant 5: No interesting commnets or likes are made just the ones to the friends saying nice things to her.
Participant 6: No real interest is shown in comments or likes besides the responses made back to friends
After unpacking all of this data I began to see a trend in each persons identity online due to the way they represented themselves in the photos, posts, and comments/likes they shared with their friends online. Although it all might look like a bunch of numbers the participants are sharing with me their online representation of themselves without them even knowing and with my interviews with them I hope to debunk this even further by showing that your identity performance through representation is no different than you performing your identity face to face to people. Just like in Alexandra Samuel's Ted Talk who you are online can be the same person you are offline as well. Like the acronym she coined IRL(in real life), your life online and who you are online is your real life too your just representing it through mediation and traces of constant posts. Through the data the participants are starting to shape their representations of who they are online and in my interview I am going to question that and see the differences of what they are in real life compared to the data i have collected creating their online representations of themselves. Hopefully each participant as well as viewers of this blog will get a better understanding of how much of an impact you share is with representing and performing your identity.
Adding the new participants data first:
Participant 5
Linkedin:
Does not have one
Twitter:
Does not have one (deactivated)
Facebook:
Photos:
59 photos all with her in each one whether with friends or a selfie
Posts and Reposts:
A relatively new account with only 11 posts (Either congratulating someone, talking about an event, or a location)
Comments/Like:
Consisted of likes and comments replying to every follower that commented on her post.
Overall: The photos, posts, and likes/comments all pointed to the same representation of a person online mainly to connect with friends and share their accomplishments in life, which was an interesting representation compared to the other participants representations so far.
Participant 6
Linkedin:
No linkedin
Twitter:
No twitter (deactivated)
Facebook:
Photos:
81 photos with 9 of them being cover photos or profile pictures others consisted of locations, events, and group photos where he was tagged by another user usually his friend on Facebook.
Posts and Reposts:
6 of the 50 posts on his timeline were his, usually photos of events. Other photos were tagged photos from other users that had him in their photos
Comments/Likes:
Most activity was found in the comment section of the posts that he was tagged in, with every post, all 44 of them either having a like or comment in the reply section.
Overall: Another great addition to the participants to the group giving another glimpse in statistical data going against the curve and representing himself in a manner that follows his online image, where he connects and comments on all the posts he is tagged in showing his connection and the importance of social interaction with friends.
After collecting this new data I began the categorization of said data:
*Note: 50 posts for photos, 50 posts for posts and reposts, and 50 posts for likes and comments (Splitting them up into separate data)
Linkedin:
As linkedin was a unused item besides the connections made on the platform, these accounts were not a gold mine for information but on the contrary a viable source for later questions of why there was not as much representation going on, on this media platform compared to others.
Twitter:
Participants 5 and 6 accounts were deactivated by them which I will go in depth when the reason becomes available to me after I interview them.
Categorizing Photos:
Groups:
Participant 1: 28 of the 50 were used to connect to teams and friends he was apart of at some point in time.
Participant 2: 6 of the 50 were photos of groups he was apart of in school, sports, etc.
Participant 3: 11 of the 50 dealt with groups such as teams she has been on.
Participant 4: 1 of the 50 photos was of a group he belongs to, a coaching staff.
Relationships:
Participant 1:1 of 50 were of a prior relationship with a significant other.
Participant 2: 1 of 50 again of a relationship.
Participant 3: 16 of the 50 were relationship photos dealing with best friend commentary to go with most of them.
Participant 4: 13 of the 50 had a relationship but mostly work related, colleagues
Interests:
Participant 1: 21 of the 50 photos were over interests such as sports, politics, and lifting.
Participant 2: 43 of the 50 photos were of interesting photos and memes he wanted to share.
Participant 3: 23 of the 50 photos were of she had in showing something off like a dog, or hobby.
Participant 4: 36 of the 50 photos were of interests he had such as sports teams.
Categorizing posts and reposts:
Popularity:
Participant 1:8 of 50 were posts retweets that were trending.
Participant 2: 21 of 50 were trending posts that he retweeted
Participant 3:12 of 50 consisting of trending posts retweeted
Participant 4: 30 of 50 were based on trends
Connecting to post personally:
Participant 1: 17 of 50 were posts and reposts that connected to his life in a certain way.
Participant 2: 5 of the 50 were posts that meant something to him, letting his feed know from either a post or retweet.
Participant 3: 26 of 50 were personal posts, sharing on a level to connect with her feed
Participant 4: 15 of 50 dealt in personal posts that meant something to him.
In the interest of sharing with friends:
Participant 1: 25 of the 50 posts were over topics meant to be shared by the participant, from funny gifs to sports recaps
Participant 2: 24 of the 50 posts were meant for friends to connect with them over posts and reposts.
Participant 3: 12 of the 50 were shared posts mostly tagged with @'s
Participant 4: 5 of the 50 were of things that caught his eye like sports.
Categorizing likes and comments:
Connects to their personal life:
Participant 1:15 of the 50 were posts that connected to him.
Participant 2:14 out of the 50 were used for likes that went to posts that were relevant to his own life experiences.
Participant 3: 37 of 50 were likes that were posts that seemed to have an impact on her personally
Participant 4: 3 of 50 barely any personal life connections but with work
Connecting with friends:
Participant 1:8 out of the 50 were comments replying back to friends online.
Participant 2:10 out of the 50 posts were comments made to friends about certain posts.
Participant 3: 6 of 50 were comments made to tweets she was tagged in and replied to.
Participant 4: 8 of 50 mostly dealing with work related friends sharing posts and commenting on said posts
Interesting to user:
Participant 1: 27 of the 50 were liked posts that I guess he enjoyed or thought was noble enough to like it and be able to look back at it in his like section.
Participant 2: 26 of the 50 were liked due to interests or things he liked popped up on his feed and gave it a like.
Participant 3: 7 of 50 were random posts that seemed to interest her at the moment.
Participant 4: 39 of 50 were likes that were of posts that interested him such as politics and sports.
Facebook:
*Due to inactivity of participants 1 and 2 for duration they have been on Facebook there was no data to be collected besides photos and from the photo albums.
Categorizing Photos:
Groups:
Participant 1: 12 of 46 photos with him being on teams.
Participant 2: 18 of 37 photos of him being on sports teams
Participant 3: 10 of 85 in sports teams
Participant 4: Around 400 of the 1000 plus photos is groups or teams as a coach
Participant 5: 1 of 5 was apart of a team
Participant 6: 11 of the 77 photos were of groups with school studying abroad and other school societies
Relationships:
Participant 1: 5 of 46 being from family and old relationships
Participant 2: 7 of 37 were of family and old relationships
Participant 3: 66 of 85 being of family
Participant 4: around 200 were of family
Participant 5: 2 of 5 were of friends
Participant 6: 30 of 77 were of friends and family
Interests:
Participant 1: 29 or the rest were photos of himself doing what interested him like sports and school.
Participant 2: 12 of 37 were of interests like hanging out with friends and action photos of playing sports
Participant 3: 9 of 85 over hobbies and adventures that interested her
Participant 4: the rest of the 1000 plus photos were a mix of interest like hobbies, events, and sports
Participant 5: 2 were of interesting places she had been
Participant 6: 36 of the 77 were interesting things and places he had been that meant something to him to share.
Categorizing posts and reposts:
Popularity:
Participant 3: 0 posts went to popular trends
Participant 4: 6 of the 50 were posts dealing with popular issues.
Participant 5: No popular trending posts
Participant 6: No popular trend posts
Connecting to post personally:
Participant 3: 17 of the 30 recently posted were personal posts about subjects that were important to her
Participant 4: 18 of the 50 were posts dealing with personal issues
Participant 5: 11 of 11 were personal posts like graduation to accomplishments/events
Participant 6: 3 out of the 50 were personal dealing with important trips/school events
In the interest of sharing with friends:
Participant 3: 13 of the recent 30 were posts that were over interesting subjects that she wanted to share with her followers
Participant 4: the rest of the 50 (26) were things he shared to help awareness for his connections/friends
Participant 5: No interest posts were found
Participant 6: 47 of the 50 or the rest were of mainly tagged posts to him sharing interesting posts by not just himself but his friends as well.
Categorizing likes and comments:
Connects to their personal life:
Participant 3: Looking at the first 50 comments/likes, only 2 refer to personal life.
Participant 4: No likes or comments go to personal life
Participant 5: Half of all likes and comments stem from personal life, around 39 and growing due to her latest post
Participant 6: 3 of the 50 likes and comments go to personal life, due to most of it being responses to friends posts and tags
Connecting with friends:
Participant 3:Out of the 50 about 14 of the posts refer to friends posts
Participant 4: 42 of the 50 are likes that go to friends post appreciating their posts by acknowledging it.
Participant 5: about half of 39 remain in old post, mainly saying thank you to everyone congratulating her on her accomplishment posts
Participant 6: The rest of the 50 revolve around friends posts and replying back and forth/liking their posts and socializing over the post.
Interesting to user:
Participant 3: The rest of the 50 (34) lay in discussion posts, with her comments talking about interesting subjects
Participant 4:8 of 50 are comments that are here and there on friends posts about subjects that he wants to share his opinion on.
Participant 5: No interesting commnets or likes are made just the ones to the friends saying nice things to her.
Participant 6: No real interest is shown in comments or likes besides the responses made back to friends
After unpacking all of this data I began to see a trend in each persons identity online due to the way they represented themselves in the photos, posts, and comments/likes they shared with their friends online. Although it all might look like a bunch of numbers the participants are sharing with me their online representation of themselves without them even knowing and with my interviews with them I hope to debunk this even further by showing that your identity performance through representation is no different than you performing your identity face to face to people. Just like in Alexandra Samuel's Ted Talk who you are online can be the same person you are offline as well. Like the acronym she coined IRL(in real life), your life online and who you are online is your real life too your just representing it through mediation and traces of constant posts. Through the data the participants are starting to shape their representations of who they are online and in my interview I am going to question that and see the differences of what they are in real life compared to the data i have collected creating their online representations of themselves. Hopefully each participant as well as viewers of this blog will get a better understanding of how much of an impact you share is with representing and performing your identity.
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