Paper Example on People's Identity Construction on Social Media Platforms

Abstract

This research project was carried out to explore how people construct an identity on Social Media. Social Media has been on a rapid growth since people showcase their living experiences through media platforms. Also, Social Media tends to reflect particular dimensions which are related to the virtual and physical social lives of individuals. Although the significance of the social media in the construction of people's identity there has been little research which has been conducted in the exploration of the way people construct their status on Social Media. This research comprised of the eight semi-structured interviews which explored how the participants' identity can be built on Social Media.

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After conducting the interviews, different themes such as the privacy and Social concerns, multiple identities and the Environment and the managing identities and impressions arise. The research will analyze why individuals behave differently when they are using social media and in real lives. People in social media tend to maintain their identity so that they can keep their name. People try to change their behavior on the Social Media thus maintaining their identity to other people, but in reality, they might be depressed or undergoing through stressful conditions. Therefore, this research would play a significant role in explaining how different themes relate to the way individuals construct an identity on Social Media.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Statement of the Problem

This research study will set out to explore the literature, while keeping a focus on the following themes: "Self and Identity", "Social Media" and "Mediated Selves".

As the literature review process progresses, it is my expectation that this will open my thinking and ideas to new theoretical approaches within the social sciences.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

This literature review will identify and evaluate the studies from the classic and current studies that relate to the following themes: "Self and Identity, "Social Media" and "Mediated Identities." Furthermore, this will justify further research about the construction of self-identity on social media. The beginning of this literature review will draw on the classic literature that focuses on the problematic nature of self and identity.

The Sociology of Self and Identity

In the literature, Callero (2003), explored the problematic nature of self and identity. It is a fundamental factor to consider in the sociological discussions that focus on the quality of character and how this can act as a driving force that happens during everyday social interaction. It occurs in social situations where two or more individuals are present in one another's response presence (Goffman, 1983, p.2).

Previous studies have debated the nature of self. However, there is no universal definition of the definition of a person. In contemporary society, postmodern and post-structuralist theories reject the idea that only oneself exists; previously, this was a general assumption (Callero, 2003).

On the other hand, the nature of identity as it is understood in contemporary critical theory influences the way people treat their everyday social interaction with each other. The idea of identity is still problematic to define as the social and cultural assumptions are continually changing. However, this brings up some important questions: to what extent are the projects of our identities made by ourselves? Secondly, do we choose how we construct our identities in both offline and online environments or are there certain powers at work that make critical decisions for us? To give a better idea of the process of identity construction, this section will focus on the three perspectives upon one's self: self as power, a reflexive process, and social development.

Mead (1934) distinguished between the self and identity that sees the self as emerging from the mind and developing from the social and patterned interaction that shape the social structure that is social media. The "me" is the socialised aspect of one's self, and the "I" is the active aspect of oneself of the person, and the "I" is the active aspect of the person (Mead, 1967).

The self is comprised of various identities from everyday social interactions and relationships that create the lenses by which the individual performs the role in response to the reaction communicated by other individuals (Cooley, 1902). However, Goffman made the distinction that an individual performs a role on the front stage and backstage. The front stage consists of the individual performing to the audience, and the back stage is where the individual will practice the performance to the audience. Goffman's argument, illustrated how an individual strives to influence the how one is perceived the social interaction by managing the image given off that he termed "social actors" performing a role, however the role is influenced by the social setting (Mead, 1934).

First, it is undoubtedly Michel Foucault who perceives the self as the product and the consequence of power relations: for Foucault, the very existence of person depends on the "imposing of disciplinary practices on the body" (Callero, 2003). In the article "Who needs an identity?" Hall (1996), emphasises the idea that it is impossible to find any authentic or true self since self is a priori born "within" the discourse.

Second, the self can be seen as a reflexive process of social interaction, that is, it presupposes the opportunity for a person to be both a subject and an object to one's self - this is how the self is seen in the theory of symbolic interactionism (Callero, 2003).

The idea of reflexivity draws from Mead's theory, that suggests "it is using reflexiveness, the turning back of the experience of the individual upon himself, that the whole social process is thus brought into the experience of the individuals involved in it" (Meads, 1934). In this study, the individual interprets the self through social interaction with others. As indicated, the association between the man or lady recognisable proof and the bigger society is a "centre" for some sociologists (Brym & Lie, 2009), comprehensive of George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman. Both sociologists had been centre around finding out about of character personality, putting accentuation on the job of association with other individuals. The investigations of George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman added to the improvement of symbolic interactionism as their perspectives share a decent arrangement practically speaking (Burkitt, 1991).

Nonetheless, there are specific contrasts between George Herbert Mead's and Erving Goffman's understandings of the constitution and duplicate of individual character. From a sociological point of view, the reasoning of unique ID alludes to getting some answers concerning the connections between different practices and aggregately. The thoughts of George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman including individual personality are compelling in forming the model of unique character. "Singular distinguishing proof - typified in selfhood - is anything but a huge recommendation in disconnection from the human universe of various individuals" (Richard Jenkins 2014). Both Mead and Goffman endeavour to translate the understanding and multiplication of individual personality, anyway they do it in various ways.

Within the topic of self and society, Goffman introduced his ground-breaking work that incorporates the dramaturgical theory, as a useful method that describes the context of human interaction. In this study, he analyses situational face-to-face interaction and suggests that people behave as actors when they communicate with each other. Each situation requires a person to create a specific image that they present to other people, that is, to the audience. It implies that it is impossible for a person to have a single identity, in addition to being authentic. However, authenticity can be demonstrated to others with no recourse to theatrical performances. Instead, one's self contains many different identities that are acted out in different situations that call for them. Next, the role is performed appropriate to the location, and simultaneously evaluates how others play their roles as well.

Moreover, one can choose the role they should perform, using contemplating whether the reaction of the audience positively received their performance. Therefore, this suggests that a person assumes both the role of an actor and an audience in any given situation (Goffman, 1959). However, there is an issue to consider here which are the front and backstage, thus creating a limitation to this approach.

There is a crucial distinction that relates to the difference between the front stage and backstage behaviour. The front step implies that one needs to perform before the audience, while the backstage is a space where one ceases to function and might be their authentic self without putting on any masks at all (Goffman, 1959). Although, the cover is also a metaphor used by Goffman, and borrowed from dramaturgy: the mask implies that a person can deceive their audience by emphasizing some aspects of their personality while concealing other ones, while the cover and the "backstage personality" belong to the same person (Bullingham & Vasconcelos, 2013). Goffman's concept is a useful framework that supports the symbolic interactionist approach. This point of view guarantees that "people use language and noteworthy images in their correspondence with others" (Goffman, 1959). Furthermore, by applying personal meaning to these situations they interact. Thus, individuals make up what is called society.

According to Blumer, the key issues that characterise symbolic interactionism are as follows: there should be a specific socio-cultural context or a situation in order for interaction to occur; by interacting with each other people create and re-create meanings; the action of individuals depend on the subjective definitions of the objects (Blumer, 1969). One of the theories about symbolic interactionism that was proposed by Turner, namely Turner's role theory, shares similarities with Goffman's whereby Turner emphasised that individuals have certain role expectations. Therefore, this is always embedded in the social structure.

In summary, this secti...