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!