Szulc, L. (2019) Profiles, identities, data: making abundant and anchored selves in a platform society. Communication Theory, 29 (3). pp. 257-276. ISSN 1050-3293
Abstract
The practice of profile making has become ubiquitous in digital culture. Internet users are regularly invited, and usually required, to create a profile for a plethora of digital media, including mega social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Understanding profiles as a set of identity performances, I argue that the platforms employ profiles to enable and incentivize particular ways and foreclose other ways of self-performance. Drawing on research into digital media and identities, combined with mediatization theories, I show how the platforms: (a) embrace datafication logic (gathering as much data as possible and pinpointing the data to a particular unit); (b) translate the logic into design and governance of profiles (update stream and profile core); and (c) coax—at times coerce—their users into making of abundant but anchored selves, that is, performing identities which are capacious, complex, and volatile but singular and coherent at the same time.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Communication Theory. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Identity; Profiles; Social Media; Platforms; Mediatization; Data |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number European Commission 699745-FACELOOK-MSCA-IF-EF-ST |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Dec 2018 14:46 |
Last Modified: | 09 Jul 2020 13:06 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qty031 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/ct/qty031 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:139678 |