Personal Home Pages: the Presentation of Self

in Virtual Life

LM350 Computer Mediated Communication

References

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)

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

• How would you describe yourself if you were arranging to meet someone you didn’t know?

• Easy/difficult?• What extra resources would you

have liked?

Presentation 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 you’ve never met

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Some focal places:• Workspace (for office workers and so

on)

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Some focal places:• Teenage/student bedrooms

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Some focal places:• Vehicles

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Some focal places:• Homes in general

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Imagine you meet these people at a party. What are they telling you about themselves and how?

Presentation 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…)

Presentation 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…)

Presentation 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.

Presentation of Self on Web

http://www.dmichael.co.uk

http://www.thecolefamily.com

http://www.geocities.com/kirman2069/sch8.html

Resources for Presentation of Self on Web

• Language• Written style• Structure (already conventional?)• Graphic design• Multimedia elements• Content• Links

What’s 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

• …