Speaker:

Erika Pearson, Dept. of Media, Film and Communication

Title:

All the World Wide Web's a Stage: the performance of identity in online social networks

Location:

Archway 2 - 1:00 pm, Friday 04 April

Abstract:

This talk will discuss how ideas of performance can be used to conceptualize the play of identity formation on social networking sites (SNS). Linking Goffman's theories of social performance with Granovetter's notion of the social tie, this talk will argue that identities on SNS are performances that straddle the frontstage and the backstage, the public and the private, and in doing so forge and support webs of social connections which engage with fluid or experimental identity constructions.