Module 3: introduction - Your Internet Footprint

Footprints is something you are purposely doing, shadow is more about things that are online that are about you and are out of your control. Shift from module 2.0 user content, content generated user, aggregation of digital fragments that speaks about who you are in regards to how people understand you on the web. Theories of self; frameworks through who we can think about the self, perspectives of how we may consider about ourselves. Self is subjective, my ideas and others ideas of my self is something we need to think about when the context of self shifts. How we replicate that if we want to project a particular image about ourselves. Erving Goffman, the presentation of self in everyday life (1959). Thought he put forward is to think of ourselves as a series of performances, not fake or superficial, edit the sense of self depending on the needs of particular group of settings we are with. Goffman's ideas are influential in digital media studies, we create something on line that will create our digital self. When we have self in the physical self our visual presentation in dialogue we don't think about our personalities as it happens automatically so we have to think about that to create our social online presence. So do we want different senses of self in different areas we mix in with. A contemporary theorist is Judith Butler; has written a number of influential books, gender trouble in (1999).

All self is a performance, which is a form of constriction, there is no way of constructing ourselves that isn't constructed through language culture and ideas. Part of postmodern and post structuralist movement: saw everything as discursive and thus constructive. Is a blog a performance, what are we trying to achieve by that? Donna Haraway; cyborg: everyone in contemporary society is so engrained in technology and that we would be fundamentally different people without it. Entry one in contemporary society is already cyborg. Technology of immunisation, diets etc, we are fundamentally different because of all these options and changes that is available to us. They are extensions of our self that is fundamentally important to us, i.e. communicating mainly via mobile devices, we social with greater circles of friends through FB. This is an insight into how we consider of how we talk on line does change ourselves, consider identity and self online. Every single medium we use online, profile; because we need reference material we need to know more about someone to understand what they are saying. Build something in order to convey meaning, so questions to understand you.

Networked self; self is not the product of just the online tools, sns, when they are indexed by search engines and reconfigured and presented differently in search engines. We want a variety of tools and add them together, this is different to how early identity was done. Is communicating on kind is that part of our identity, how does that situate us.

Personas project; who someone is and what is it that they like online. Online marketing companies want this information which is why Facebook is pushing people to use their real names, thus that is why FB is working on this as they are making a lot of money through access to this derived information from our online activity. Presentation of the self on the Web plays an important role in defining the nature of your web presence. Interesting reading this week about online communication and self disclosure, how we can choose what parts of ourselves to show and how we want that portrayed, also being more vulnerable and talking with a variety of people about other personal issues we are interested in with our greater network of friends allows another form of expression and the chance of being ridiculed is based on the topic. Research shows that self-disclosure plays an important role in intimacy development in interpersonal exchanges. The more anonymous one feels is due to the fact they limit the information they release about themselves, less self disclosure. The goals of the blog are important in understanding possible relationships between anonymity and self-disclosure. Anonymity does not resolve all bloggers concerns about privacy. Fake names are not about anonymity but more about being cool.

Papacharissi, Z. (2010). Conclusion: A Networked Self. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 304-318). Routledge. [Via Curtin Library eReserve]

Once you’ve read one (or more) of these articles, post your reactions to the discussion boards. 

As part of that discussion, consider how much time you put into thinking about your own identity online – is this something you’ve considered before?  

In what settings have you considered your identity online (for example, have you considered what happens if a link to your Facebook profile turns up in Google or Bing)?

My brain is working faster at adopting this as the terms and the contexts are becoming familiar.. I'm spending alot of time on this due to,loving it.