Self-Presentation on Facebook: An Analysis of Discourse

Abstract

This study examined the discursive resources employed by participants in research interviews to construct the nature of their self-presentation on the social networking site, Facebook. Speakers were observed to draw upon four interpretative repertoires. In the Lack of Effort repertoire, all of the participants use phrases such as “not a huge amount of effort” and describe themselves as not being “bothered” to a construct a discourse that conveys a lack of effort on Facebook. In the Denial of Influence repertoire, interviewees use the terms “not bothered” and “don’t really care” to construct an identity that is uninfluenced by others’ opinions of their Facebook profile pages. Respondents use the phrases “not bothered” and “don’t really care” to construct an identity that is uninfluenced by others’ opinions of their Facebook profile pages in The Real Me repertoire. Finally, participants who make use of the It’s Practical repertoire employ such terms as “useful” and “organizational” to construct an identity that is focused on using Facebook for practical reasons. An overall reluctance to fully commit to membership of the social networking site is observed. The implications of this analysis for previous accounts of self-presentation in online social networking are discussed and potential directions for future research are proposed.