Title: Personal Home Pages: the Presentation of Self in Virtual Life
1Personal Home Pages the Presentation of Self in
Virtual Life
- LM350 Computer Mediated Communication
2References
- Goffman, Erving. 1969. The Presentation of Self
in Everyday Life. - Erickson, Tom. 1996. The WWW as Social Hypertext.
Communications of the ACM. - Chandler, D. D. Roberts-Young. The Construction
of Identity in the Personal Home Pages of
Adolescents (web site) - Döring, Nicola. 2002. Personal Home Pages on the
Web A Review of Research. JCMC 7 (3)
3Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- How would you describe yourself if you were
arranging to meet someone you didnt know? - Easy/difficult?
- What extra resources would you have liked?
4Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Some focal situations
- Lonely hearts/dating service
- Job interviews
- Parties
- Arranging to meet an unknown person and giving a
description of yourself - Writing to an unknown correspondent
- Phoning someone youve never met
5Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Some focal places
- Workspace (for office workers and so on)
6Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Some focal places
- Teenage/student bedrooms
7Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Some focal places
- Vehicles
8Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Some focal places
- Homes in general
9Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Imagine you meet these people at a party. What
are they telling you about themselves and how?
10Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Some resources
- Intrinsic appearance (height, weight, age,
(dis)ability) - Modifiable appearance (hair, clothes, makeup,
things you carry) - Things you do with your body (Posture,
expression, gesture, proximity)
11Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
- Objects (cars, houses, décor, books CDs,
gadgets) - Language (content, style, vocabulary, accent,
interactional style) - Behaviours and attitudes (holidays, hobbies,
pastimes) - Work related features (profession, status,
wealth)
12Presentation of Self on Web
- The Web is one of the first venues where
individuals can construct portrayals of
themselves using information rather than consumer
goods as their palette - Erickson, 1996.
13Presentation of Self on Web
- http//www.dmichael.co.uk
- http//www.thecolefamily.com
- http//www.geocities.com/kirman2069/sch8.html
14Resources for Presentation of Self on Web
- Language
- Written style
- Structure (already conventional?)
- Graphic design
- Multimedia elements
- Content
- Links
15Whats the attraction?
- Can construct identity separate from any aspect
of physical appearance, disability, age, accent
and so on - Identity constructed out of content links, plus
mastery of the medium - Low cost altruism
- Human urge to make ourselves known to other
people -