Sandie Ramirez- Mayorga Summary/Response #1

Sandie Ramirez-Mayorga's Summary/Response to:

Bullingham, Liam. Vasconcelos, Ana C. "'The presentation of self in the online world' : Goffamnd and the study of online identities." Journal of Information Science, vol. 39, no.1, 2013, pp. 1-12, doi:10.177/016555150000000

Summary

Bullingham and Casconcelos article 'The presentation of self in the online world' : Goffamnd and the study of online identities questions self identity of individuals with second life (SL) blogs or social media accounts and how they perceive themselves to their audience. At the beginning the authors give us an understanding to SL persona's through Goffman's interpretations of self identity in an online world. Terms such as front stage/backstage behavior and mask help the reader understand why a person in a SL community would post or react to things in a certain way. The authors' write that "Because 'a mask of manner can be held in place from within' an individual can bring forth certain aspects of his/her self in the interaction while simultaneously marginalizing others."(1) In other words, the SL author is not becoming another person, they are simply playing a role with two faces.

While some individuals with SL persona's characterized themselves as being very true to their audience, others believed the sole reason for their SL accounts was to be someone else entirely and not have to conform to any social norms that society or family had restrained them to. The article supports this theory by stating, "... by self-censoring, these bloggers are forced to present a politically-acceptable persona ..." (4) Many individuals with SL accounts see this as a management of impression that is so much easier to uphold rather than to be opening up face-to-face with another person. The authors make note of this by stating. "The distance between performer and audience that physical detachment provides makes it easy to conceal aspects of the offline self and embellish them online." (2) Thus giving an individual the freedom to both be true to themselves offline and online.

The authors then explain that there is another form of identity SL individuals may use called blended identity in which the individuals offline self reflects more on their online self. Some individuals interviewed stated that in order to create such a transparency through their social media, they let a lot of their offline selves influence their online personas whether it be by a simple user name, or an avatar that looks closely like their true selves. According to the article, this is what Goffman referred to when he used the terms front/backstage performance. Although some individuals conform to social media by using this form of identity, the result of using such technique reverts the online persona to the offline person most of the time.

Response

I thought this article was definitely interesting, especially because there are so many people that express themselves through social media such as blogs. Since I wasn't very familiar with blogs and what goes into creating them, I thought this article was definitely eye opening. What surprised me the most was that some SL individuals that use pseudonyms are constantly fighting a battle to be their true selves. I was able to relate to this because my social media has to be censored due to my profession. When I was applying to become a teacher I was asked specifically what my social media accounts were. As surprising as this was, it helped me gain an understanding as to why some individuals only post or react to certain things.

Another thing I found very interesting is the time some bloggers take to create this online persona by giving readers just enough information for them to understand and trust the person behind the screen. Like I mentioned before, blogging was something I was not fully understanding of and I think that it's amazing what a person can do through a blog. Reaching others through a blog whether it be true or half true always seems to amaze me. I've always been more of a face-to-face type of person to the point where I constantly loose my phone because I never use it. To think that there are others that feel more confident behind a computer is pretty inspiring to a person like myself. The most important thing I got from this article is why some people go full on true to themselves and why others don't include any of their offline persona into their online presentation.

Quotations

"Individuals, therefore, encouraged by separation and the absence of effective retaliation, are encouraged to adopt a different online persona, but the effect is finite in that there is the need to observe rules and conventions local to the online community or environment." (4)

"Extreme emotions here indicate sincerity, as the blog this appears raw and unedited. This confessional style suggest that the reader is being given access to powerful feelings that have note been altered for style or storytelling, but rather, are sincere." (7)

"Perhaps the division of self is necessary due to the complexity of the offline self. It is a 'melting pot' of different contexts which need to be married, but in the online environment it is simpler and more relevant to divined the self into aspects like 'professional' or 'storytelling'."(8)

"By masking identity, this fear may be reduced, as the act cannot be carried through to the offline person. An avatar can be deleted, but if the negative act happens to an avatar associated with an offline person, then the act might seem more personal and permanent for the user..." (9)

"Releasing such information invites blog readers to treat the blogging self as one and the same as the RL self." (9)