Authenticity on Facebook. Between Exposure and Self Representation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the topic of self presentation on Facebook, by rethinking Goffman’s dramaturgy of everyday life and adapting it to the environment of social networking sites. In order to do so, I draw on two existing discussions in the literature: one is the dichotomy between self presentation and exposure (with users shifting between being subjects and objects) and the other is the increased preoccupation with representation rather than presentation of the self, which is specific to late modernity. My understanding of the issue comes from a qualitative empirical study, with data consisting of semi structured interviews with Facebook users. The conclusion, drawing on Featherstone, is that the interpretative processes which come into play when reading Facebook posts as presentation, representation or exposure, have lost their uniformity with the rise of multiple competing regimes of significance.