Abstract
This study examines the ways in which identity is managed on social networking sites through image suppression practices – namely, untagging and requesting deletion on Facebook. Goffman’s theory of impression management is used, focusing on his understudied ideas about how individuals respond to what others communicate about them, by controlling for information that is discrepant with their desired self-presentation. Data are reported from an exploratory set of qualitative interviews and an online quantitative survey. Results showed that many Facebook users engaged in suppression strategies, albeit infrequently. In addition, users were statistically more likely to not post a potentially damaging image than they were to untag it, and were more likely to untag it than to request that another user delete it. The authors suggest that one possibility is that users avoid more overt identity management strategies because they carry the risk of making users look duplicitous. A potential model is suggested that future research might test to develop a fuller understanding of online identity management.
References
. (July 9, 2012). Facebook.com. Retrieved from www.alexa.com/siteinfo/facebook.com
(2011). Examining risk factors for homeless men: Gender role conflict, help-seeking behaviors, substance abuse and violence. Journal of Men’s Studies, 19(3), 227–235.
(1980). Family photographs: A sociological approach. The Netherland Journal of Sociology, 16, 95–119.
(2007). Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life. In , MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media (pp. 119–142). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
(2002). Snapshots “r” us: the evidentiary problematic of home media. Visual Studies, 17(2), 141–149.
(2009). Reputation: A network interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press.
(2006). Managing impressions online: Self-presentation processes in the online dating environment. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2), article 2. Retrieved from jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue2/ellison.html
(2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends”: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), article 1. Retrieved from jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html
(2011). Self, community and ethics in digital mediatized worlds. In , Trust and virtual worlds: Contemporary perspectives. New York: Peter Lang.
(1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor Books.
(2008, July 27). Picture your name here. New York Times. p. 6 Retrieved from web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=112&sid=4db7c13a-91b2-4f21-8ac2-fdb323201e0c%40sessionmgr112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=33318108
(2010). The presentation of self in the age of social media: Distinguishing performances and exhibitions online. Bulletin of Science Technology & Society, 30, 377.
(2012). The real you? The role of visual cues and comment congruence in perceptions of social attractiveness from Facebook profiles. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(7), 339–344.
(2011). Online self-presentation: Balancing privacy concerns and impression construction on social networking sites. In , Privacy online: Perspectives on privacy and self-disclosure in the social web (pp. 127–142). Berlin: Springer.
(2009). Privacy concerns and identity in online social networks. Journal of Identity in the Information Society, 2(1), 39–63.
(2010). Privacy calculus on social networking sites: Explorative evidence from Germany and USA. In , Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 1–10). Honolulu, HI: Author.
(1990). Impression management: A literature review and two-component model. Psychological Bulletin, 107(1), 34–47.
(2008). Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: Teenagers’ use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New Media and Society, 10, 393–411.
(2007). I’ll see you on “Facebook”: The effects of computer-mediated teacher self-disclosure on student motivation, affective learning, and classroom climate. Communication Education, 56(1), 1–17.
(2007). The company you keep and the image you project: Putting your best face forward in online social networks. Paper presented at the 57th Annual conference of the International Communication Association, San Francisco, CA.
(2009). Constructing the self through the photo selection: Visual impression management on social networking websites. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 3(1), article 1. Retrieved from cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cisloclanku=2009061501&article=1
(1977). On photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
(
2001 ). As time goes by: Ritualized remembering through wedding photography. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.(2008). User descriptions and interpretations of self-presentation through Facebook profile images. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 2(2), article 5. Retrieved from cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cisloclanku=2008110402&article=5
(2010). Covering your face on facebook: Managing identity through untagging and deletion. In , Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication (pp. 288–299). Murdoch, Australia: Murdoch University.
(2011). A new twist on love’s labor: Self presentation in online dating profiles. In , Computer-mediated communication in personal relationships (pp. 41–55). New York: Peter Lang.
(2009). The privacy paradox on social network sites revisited: The role of individual characteristics and group norms. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 3(2), article 2. Retrieved from cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cisloclanku=2009111001&article=2
(2008). Digital photography: Communication, identity, memory. Visual Communication, 3, 57–76.
(2008). The role of friends’ appearance and behavior on evaluations of individuals on Facebook: Are we known by the company we keep? Human Communication Research, 34, 28–49.
(2005). An exploration of identity re-creation in the context of internet dating. Social Behavior and Personality, 33, 735–750.
(2007). A study of self-presentation in light of Facebook. Retrieved from folk.uio.no/sasanz/Mistorie/Annet/Selfpresentation_on_Facebook.pdf
(2011). Cultural differences on visual self-presentation through social networking site profile images. Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2011), Vancouver, BC, Canada (pp. 1129–1132). New York: ACM.
(2008). Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 1816–1836.
