Unfolding the Diminishing Image Control in Online Self Presentation: An Investigation of Virtual Community

As the young generations grow up using applications like Facebook and as fans of social networking technologies, understanding the presentations of self in a virtual community becomes a worthwhile topic to be addressed. Drawing on the theory of dramaturgical theory (Goffman, 1959), this interpretive research was conducted to observe the self presentation of the participants in a virtual community to analyze their online behaviors and interactions. The observations found that only in the early stage of interaction, people can have a high degree of control over the ideal images creation; however, the clues to reveal actual images are accumulated over time and across cyberspaces. This research suggested that personal control over image delivery in a virtual community weakens over time, which challenged the assumption made by prior literature regarding how people have greater control in creating ideal images in the virtual community. The findings of this research could provide insight for people who use virtual community to search for credible personal information or to build ideal images. Besides, this research suggested that although Internet technologies facilitate access to a rich source of information, the convenience in information acquisition and verification comes at the expense of personal privacy.

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