Multiple Personalities
Originally uploaded by moostang78
Anything new crops up and we think that we are inventing the world all over again. In my experience we don’t. We are just re-discovering things that others have said a lot better (and researched a lot more diligently) than us. I have a number of theories in mind but the recent acquisition of friendfeed by facebook reminded me of the dramaturgical perspective.
I use the various tools on the web differently. Facebook for me is a closed network, used for friends and family (I certainly don’t want my boss to know what I did over the weekend). Friendfeed is a public lifestream, sure I meet people, we jest, we chat, we share likes and interests. I don’t need to know them. Here is a fundamental difference. I will publish a picture of me and my sweetheart in a tender hug on Facebook – people who know me will see it. I will NOT publish a picture like that on Friendfeed. People who don’t know me will make assumptions. I don’t like it.
Why do I do that? Because I act. I create characters every day. Sofia as a member of staff, Sofia as a student, Sofia as a daughter, Sofia as a lover. They are different facets of the same woman but people don’t see the whole. They see 1) what I want to show and 2) what is relevant to the relationship and the situation. This might sound a bit weird but we all do it – as Erving Goffman has so eloquently discussed in his lovely book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
Goffman’s greatest contribution to social theory is his formulation of symbolic interaction as dramaturgical perspective in his 1956 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, which begins with an epigraph by George Santayana about masks. Largely working within the tradition of symbolic interactionist, he greatly elaborated on its central concepts and application. For Goffman, society is not homogeneous. We must act differently in different settings. The context we have to judge is not society at large, but the specific context. Goffman suggests that life is a sort of theater, but we also need a parking lot and a cloak room: there is a wider context lying beyond the face-to-face symbolic interaction.
(via Wikipedia)
According to Goffman, the social actor has the ability to choose his stage and props, as well as the costume he would put on in front of a specific audience. The actor’s main goal is to keep his coherence, and adjust to the different settings offered him.
(via Wikipedia)
Allow me to (clumsily) transpose the theory onto the web. Sofia Gkiousou on Facebook is different than Sofia Gkiousou on LinkedIn and once again different sofiagk on friendfeed. In the same way that this blog is more about work and my academic blog is more about university. Why do we do this?
People don’t know us
Why would the whole world be interested in every single thing I do? If you are into academia you’ll go to the other blog. If you are into comms you’ll stay here (well, hopefully). If you are my mother you want to see the picture from my birthday party on Facebook. If you are an acquaintance you want to see my bookmarks on Friendfeed. Sure perhaps I’ll also publish a pic of the cake but not the one with all of my friends.
People don’t need to know us
You don’t need to know me as a person. You only need to get the information you require. In the same way that my colleague doesn’t need to see a funny picture on Facebook but they might be interested in an interesting bookmark on friendfeed. If we get friendly in the process even better. But that can’t happen with everyone.
Our identity determines the use of the tool
By having clear barriers in mind it becomes easier to use each tool according to your needs. If you want to keep some things personal Facebook is ideal (apart from, well, some glitches here and there). If you want to share some things with the world you go onto other platforms. Sure, you may want to use complicated lists, permissions and grouping on Facebook. I find that tiring (which again, is part of my identity)
The tool guides our identity
Take my picture for example. It’s that same across all platforms except on LinkedIn. I wear a suit in that one. I look straight on. It’s my office pic. It says different things about me and so it should.
Other actors know the rules too!
As Goffman puts it we socially have a definition in any given interaction (this offers coherency). Hence most actors understand how I use Facebook and how I use LinkedIn. Granted, some times I need to explain but that’s because the platforms are not as old as other ‘places’ like for example how one behaves at a family function.
Misunderstanding this fundamental function and operation of social action/ representation may lead onto designing tools and platforms that bring all of our identities under one umbrella. I suspect that people will be reluctant to flatten out all of their interactions.
What do you think?
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Hat Tip
Hugh Isaacs II for the chat on a Robert Scoble friendfeed update
Read On:
FriendFeed accepts Facebook friend request by Bret Taylor on friendblog
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed (Updated) by Jason Kinkaid on TechCrunch
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed by Adam Ostrow on Mashable
Facebook Users: Here’s What FriendFeed Brings to the Family by Marshall Kirkpatrick on Read Write Web
Oh, FriendFeed is now Facebook’s “official” R&D department! by Robert Scoble on Scobleizer
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Following a database meltdown (long live the server move processes) this post and any comments were uploaded again manually.
