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{1.2a1a} social media removes agency in our identity performance

topics: [[identity]]

{1.2a2a} social media decontextualizes our relationships by flattening our social network, requiring us to perform the same identity across multiple contexts (aka {1.2a2} context collapse).
- In other words, all relationships are treated the same, which means we can’t perform differently to different audiences.
We don’t do this in real life. It’s easy for my family persona to be different from my persona with friends which is different from my work persona.
The flattening of our network takes away the agency we have to present ourselves differently to different groups of people.
You could, for example, decline someone’s friend request on Facebook, but now that person knows what you think of them — that you do not want them to have access to this part of your life.
- There’s nothing wrong with that, but we typically don’t have to publicize our social judgements.
2024-09-07 — However, {1.2a1a1} the internet lets you try on new identities

created: 2024-09-07-20-16 ✻ modified: 2025-10-05-17-02 ✻ tags:

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