Online identity
- Every participant in a communicative act has an imagined audience. Audiences are not discrete; when we talk, we think we are speaking to the people in front of us or on the other end of the telephone, but this is in many ways a fantasy (46 words).
This statement was written by Alice E. Marwick and Danah Boyd in their article, “I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience.”
In this case, the authors are trying to introduce their argument that in a communication situation, there exists a difference in how we communicate within different contexts. In order to explain this phenomenon, the authors mentioned the theory of situationship, which maintains that individuals react to situations centered on the context as opposed to fixed psychological characters. This brings out the main argument presented by the author, which is social media users create an imagined audience, which results in context collapse. In explaining the concept of context collapse and imagined audience, Boyd and Marwick used the example of twitter, a microblogging website. The authors argue that participants of twitter tend to have an imagined audience, and this affects how they tweet, bringing about the concept of context collapse. This is a phenomenon where the audience from numerous or multiple backgrounds is collapsed to one audience by the producer of the information.
This article is important in explaining the impact of social media on how we communicate and create conversation. It contributes to social science with regard to the effect of social media and how it affects we relate with each other.
I agree with the argument that social media has changed the concept of communication, bringing about context collapse. The reason why I agree with this argument is that I usually explore the social media world, and being a user, I have experienced the concept of context collapse. When I tweet or post on social media, there is usually a need to balance the socially accepted norms with my own personality in an attempt to sound cool while trying to ensure that I’m authentic, meaning I create an imagined audience. Additionally, I have to produce a piece of information that fits with a wide audience who are of varied backgrounds and personalities bring about the concept context collapse.
- First, memes may best be understood as pieces of cultural information that pass along from person to person, but gradually scale into a shared social phenomenon(27 words)
This statement was written by Limor Shifman, and this quote appears in his journal article titled “When Memes Go Digital.”
In this quote, Shifman tries to define meme, and he presents memes as cultural pieces of information that starts off as a person to person sharing and escalate to a social concept. This quote defines the meme in a way that presents his explanation of how the memes have found their ways into the digital platform. He uses meme to explain the contemporary attributes of digital culture. This involves the gradual movement from individuals to society, reproducing through copying as well as imitation and finally the diffusion via competing and selection. He further adds that memes are highly compatible with how the culture is developed in the Web 2.0 period, which is attributed to the development and exchange of user-generated content. According to Shifman, the concept of memes are a perfect example of the framework that forms the current digital culture, and the characteristics that define a meme such as sharing, repackaging, mimicry, and remix are highly manifested in digital surroundings. Additionally, these elements of memes have become very important and valued foundations of participatory culture, which an expected part and parcel of digitally literate users of Web 2.0.
This article is important in showcasing how memes have grown to become a huge determinant of how digital culture is currently viewed. The concept of ‘hypermemetic’ logic provides a huge understanding of the fast-paced sharing of a meme and how the culture of sharing has permeated the digital world and defined by meme culture too.
I agree with the concept that memes are a strong indicator of how digital culture has become. Attaching value to the concept of sharing, imitation, and popularity measure, and this has been seen by how user-generated content can spread fast through the sharing, repackaging, and imitation has developed trendy topics and phenomenon. Being a fan of memes and also an active participant in the digital world, the argument holds a lot of significance.
- The Internet is one among many other ways in which people flirt, gossip, learn, shop, organize, etc. Hence Internet use has to be studied not exclusively by the traces that it leaves in cyberspace, but as it meshes with other common activities and projects comprising the common ground of people’s daily lives (53 words).
This quote is from an article titled “The Internet in Everyday Life: Exploring the Tenets and Contributions of Diverse Approaches,” written by Maria Bakardjieva.
The statement above indicates the argument that Bakardjieva is trying to present that the internet has become more than a digital space but an important component that shapes society. According to the Bakardjieva, the internet in everyday life has become like a new geographical space, while a lot of research has touched on the internet as a daily life there has been numerous philosophical discrepancies which necessitate more research. Additionally, the researcher view users as a physical entity in relation to internet use rather than an online persona. He also adds that there needs to be more social and cultural paradigms studied on the internet rather than just viewing the internet as an everyday concept.
This article is significant in urging researchers to focus on numerous paradigms of research with regard to the impact of the internet on the socio-cultural and economic aspects of the world. Additionally, this urges that there is a need for more research on social and cultural constructs that internet shapes.
The argument presented bring into light the fact that internet use has a more significant effect on our culture and society than what meets the eyes. I agree with this argument. However, I believe that the research on the impact of the internet has been studied lengthy, and there are various paradigms that are presented by the researchers on the social and cultural impact of the internet.
- Identity on the internet is expressed through customization. People who create blogs, homepage, and online profiles can use a variety of digital tokens such as pictures avatars, icons, nicknames, fonts, music and video to represent themselves (36 words)
This quote was presented by Alice E. Marwick in her chapter on “Online Identity.”
This statement is important in emphasizing the fact that social media has presented the option of multiplicity, thus making identity a complex context when online. In this article, Marwick focused on theories of identity, especially self-representation and the concept of multiplicity and how social media has presented the major issues with regard to identity. She puts forward that social media has brought about the aspect of multiplicity in that users may present themselves in a different way and also experiment with different personalities with various social media apps. Social media has also presented context collapse, which creates an issue with identity.
This article is important in showcasing how social media has changed the concept of identity and has brought about various issues among the users, among them, being context collapse and failure to represent the real version of people. Although face-to-face self-representation can be changed instantly, social media denies one such option. This article contributes to the study of social identity and how the internet has shaped how people present themselves and how this self-representation has influenced their personality. With the increased use of the internet among people globally, there is no doubt that this article may help people to avoid the identified gaps that social media and the internet presents.
I agree with the argument that social media shapes our identity and how we present ourselves since I use social media and the internet daily, and my identity has been affected in multiple ways due to my online presence. With this regard, I believe that the concept of self-representation holds a different meaning when face-to-face compared to online. Additionally, multiplicity has been an obvious phenomenon for me with the use of online platforms; therefore, the arguments presented by the author have affected me personally, making them easily relatable, and therefore I agree with her.
References
Bakardjieva, Maria. (2011). The Internet in everyday life: Exploring the tenets and contributions of diverse approaches. The handbook of internet studies, 11, 59-82.
Marwick, A. E., & Boyd, D. (2011). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New media & society, 13(1), 114-133.
Marwick, Alice E (2013). “Online identity.” A companion to new media dynamics: 355-364.
SHIFMAN, Limor. (2014). Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: The MIT Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt14bs14s