Granjon, Fabien
Self-Exposure and Recognition of Subjective Singularities in Social Network Sites
- 2010.
3
Subsequent to the Sociogeek research project, focused on social network sites’ ( sns) social uses and self exposure practices on the Internet, this article deals with forms of presentation of the self produced on Facebook, and more particularly, the ones that are related to “bodily immodesty” (one of the five categories of self exposure the Sociogeek project has brought out). This article is based on a qualitative research, involving twenty interviews and the discourse analysis of self identification tokens that the people surveyed post on Facebook. Thus, we propose to examine several self exposure occurrences that play with boundaries of modesty, intimacy, privacy and public for the sole purpose of guaranteeing recognition and positive identity construction. This will lead us to pay particular attention to the way identity elements produced on sns combine to define contours of a singular and complex self, intended to have value through which confirmation from others is sought. In this case, confirmation is related to specific forms of esteem based on recognition of subjective singularities, i.e. recognition of specific skills characterizing individuals through their multiple identities. By considering self expression activities that are produced online, rules that regulate their accomplishment, and recognition demands that are their origins and their aims, we also try to question the relations between subjective self esteem demands and social esteem demands.