I Made Me: A Look At Online Impression Management
It’s 2021, and the vast majority of individuals have joined at least one social media platform during their lives. As soon as you sign up to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any similar platform, one is greeted with billions of international eyes pointed at the editable pixels on their screen that gives one the freedom to virtually create themselves. One can choose to create a profile that clearly indicates who they are, or they can opt to create a new identity. Either way, no one is safe from the urge to carry out different levels of impression management when interacting online.
In order to grasp the true nature of impression management, let’s start with a definition. According to Tedeschi and Reiss (2013), impression management is used to define any behaviour that an individual performs with the aim of forming or controlling the impression others have of their identities. This definition of impression management easily applies to the online context, since individuals are free to post any content, images, and behave online in a way that they believe will make other individuals viewing their profile perceive them in a desired light.
Online identities are inherently ‘buildable’ in nature, a trait which Warren-Smith (2020) refers to as ‘The Constructed Self’. The idea of the ‘constructed self’ is that individuals are free to create their identities essentially from scratch since their online identities have no ties to their physical identities. An interesting idea emerges from this reality, which is that since individuals are completely free to express themselves and visually create their identities, this may provide many with the opportunity to truly express themselves without the limitations of the physical world. Beddington (2013) wrote about this idea in the Foresight Future Identity report and suggested that individuals are likely to express their ‘true identities’ for the first and only time online. Basically, it is possible to consider that when someone is expressing their identity online, it may be closer to their true identity then when meeting in person.
The main ideas of impression management stem from the works of Sociologist Erving Goffman (1959), who presented the ‘Dramaturgical Model’ of interaction. According to Goffman, the identity of an individual is split between their ‘backstage’ and ‘frontstage’. The backstage refers to the true identity of an individual that is completely internal, and oftentimes can never be fully physicalised. The frontstage refers to the ‘outward’ identity an individual creates the identity that third parties encounter and see; the way someone dresses, speaks and behaves.
This concept can easily be transferred into a virtual context, with the backstage representing the information an individual chooses to keep offline, such as their private lives, with the information the individual deciding to publicly share online constituting their frontstage identities. The degree to which individuals maintain the barrier between the front and backstage varies from individual to individual, as some may be more open to sharing more of their personal lives online, such as influencers, and more may be more virtually “shy” and keep their reality private. Either way, both levels of online interaction play major roles in impression management online.
In his blog, Robert Farrell (2015) presents a downfall to the freedom of online impression management. With anyone being able to create identities in any desirable form, the ease of online ‘catfishing’ or ‘scamming’ has become a threat. Due to the lack of verification, it is almost inviting individuals to portray themselves as more attractive, more fit, or completely different to their true identities.
On dating sites like Tinder, users are required to upload images that include a face; however, the face does not necessarily have to be the user’s since the technology is easy to trick. Facebook and Instagram have the sole verification process of an email address and occasionally an existing mobile number, which ensures that users are human but does not provide any form of verification for other users in the online community to ensure the validity of profiles.
Should you be interested in a quick guide on Goffman’s theory, here is a short video that summarizes his main interests in the matter:
References:
Beddington, J. (2013), Foresight Future Identities — Executive Summary, London: The Government Office for Science.
Farrell, R. (2015, December 3). Online Impression Management [web log]. https://robertfarrellblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/online-impression-management/.
Goffman, E. (1959). Presentation of self in everyday life. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
Tedeschi, J. T., & Riess, M. (2013). Identities, the phenomenal self, and laboratory research. In J. T. Tedeschi (Ed.), Impression management theory and social psychological research (pp. 3–22). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Warren-Smith, G. (2020). New models of the inner self: Identity in the digital age. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 13(1), 131–146. doi:10.1386/jwcp.13.1.131_1
