Make me a MySpace friend

One of the most fascinating aspects of social networking sites is the ability to completely govern the perception of one's identity. By allowing users to customize their page to even the smallest details, people are able to control and mediate how people will view them, and to some extent, how they will view themselves.



What triggered this thought episode was s segment on "The Mike and Juliet Morning Show." A sixteen year old girl came on to oppose her mother policing her friends, blogs and MySpace. The girl's contention was that not every aspect of who she is should be her mothers business, to which the mother responded with the right to privacy is waived as long as the daughter lives in her house. I was captivated because it's interesting to examine this from the perspective of identity formation.



The sixteen year old explained how she used MySpace to vent her thoughts, highlite episodic events with friends, and discuss topics like sexuality, drug use and more with her friends. The issue was essentially that her mother felt that she was representing herself as one way in person, and completely different online. This was, of course, a valid concern but the question still remains: why?



In an article in Media Psychology (2008), the author discusses how users alternate between extroversion and introversion when performing public presentations online. This suggests, according to the author, an "identity shift" that may embolden someone to be more forthcoming with information that is personal online. In the case of the sixteen year old, this may explain why she maintained dual identities; remaining introverted around mom but disclosing very personal information to her online friends. It also speaks to the power of the internet in social networks.

Social networking on the internet levels the playing field. In a related article in the Journal of Family Communication, the relationship of power is discussed; in particular, noting how relational satisfaction is intensified when power is percieved to be shared. The fact that this same sixteen year old can have her favorite music artists, close friends, and people she just met all as her friends effectively makes even remote connections very possible.

So I would conclude that it does make a difference whether or not someone's parent is their MySpace friend. After all, there are some power relationships that don't change!

So what is this all about?

Recently, I've awaken to the advent of social networking sites. I haven't decided if i was just being stubborn to change or just simply naive to the fact that Myspace, Facebook, and others we're completely transforming the way we interact with the Internet. For me, it started with signing up for a Digg account. I had began to see the impact that social bookmarking was having because every page i visited had a button following the end of the article giving the user an option to share (i.e.; Blog, Digg, publish, etc.) I decided that I had two options: remain indifferent to the evolving world around me, pretending that it was all a fad the same way text messaging had been with cell phones; or i could jump on board and find out what was the driving force behind people choosing to immerse themselves in this world of social networks, information sharing, and Web 2.0. I will keep a running update of all the discoveries I make so that if you're like me (an infant to all of this), then you will be able to benefit from the knowledge that emerges.

The other part of it for me is that I'm a communication researcher. I find myself so fascinated by the way humans send and receive messages that I plan on completing doctoral studies on the phenomena (so of course, this will make for some great research). So in addition to deconstructing just what makes Myspace and Facebook so effective, I will also be looking at the communication theory that explains it. All you social researchers should have some fun with this too!