Abstract
Identity emerges as a flexible, multidimensional, variable, and slippery concept that cannot be defined through the processes of discussion and understanding. The new construction area of this concept, which is regarded as a process constructed on the social plane, is the social networking platforms. This is because these platforms are the most common communication environments where people and their lifestyles are presented to the outside world, in addition to the cheap and rapid satisfaction of their needs for information and entertainment. Face-to-face communication and language practices are not sufficient enough in the identity presentation anymore. Individuals choose to design and update their identities through social networks and to perform an image-based identity manifestation. This chapter examines how identity was established and manifested through social networks, and analyzes the identities the popular people in these networks designed and exhibited.
TopIntroduction
As of 2019, 4.3 billion people are Internet users, while 3.4 billion people (about 45% of the world’s population) are social media users (Global Overview Reporthttps://p.widencdn.net/kqy7ii/Digital2019-Report-en). Even this statistic alone will suffice to determine the position and importance of social media today. These platforms, which have been integrated into everyday life with the information age, have been easily accepted by masses. Even though they do not have a long history, they have been adopted in a short period of time. Every area of social life, from politics to social movements, from entertainment to education, has been influenced by the Internet and social networks.
Social networking sites are applications that provide information and interaction to users through network technologies (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media is defined as “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).” According to Mayfield, it is a new type of online media where a high level of sharing occurs and has the following properties (Mayfield, 2008: 5):
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Participants: Support and encourage individuals to contribute to the content and provide feedback.
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Openness: Social media platforms are open to feedback, they actively allow information sharing, and users can make comments there.
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Conversation: They allow bi-directional communication.
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Community: They pave the way for the formation of communities in a very short period of time.
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Connectedness: They allow links to be created to other pages and media related to topics that interest users.
Unlike traditional media, social media has its own characteristics. These can be summarized as the determination of the content by the user, lack of time and space limitations, being in an interactive structure and the fact that users are independent of any publisher (Erkul, 2009: 3). Social networks are the big living spaces within the small “worlds” that people create. People interacting in the Internet environment create a small world of their own. The small-world phenomenon was first discovered by sociologist Stanley Milgram in a mail experiment in 1967. Milgram has proposed a theory claiming that everyone in the world is no more than 6 people away from each other, and he has tested it. According to the classification with six degrees that emerged in the experiment, a person can reach someone he does not know through a maximum of 5 people. Being inspired by this experiment, the first social networking site on the Internet has been called “SixDegrees” (Patch, 2004, p. 4 as cited in Onat ve Alikılıç, 2008, pp. 1116–1117).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Self-Presentation: Presenting himself/herself in a way that leaves the desired image in accordance with socially and culturally accepted norms of action and behavior.
Social media: is an online network that publishes and publishes its own content. Social media is actively used by many people and institutions. In this way, quick access is easier, users can view the contents, articles, news, thoughts, daily events, photos by social media through social media.
Postmodern Identities: Postmodernism always envisions how to live if it is felt rather than pre-determined strict rules. Postmodernism considers diversity and differences in identity and diversified identities oppose the monopoly of meta-narrative and teachings.
Masculinity and Femininity: Express roles imposed on genders.
Identity: It is a collection of signs, qualities and features that show what a person is as a social being.
Popular Culture: It can be defined as a type of culture that is based on the pleasures of ordinary people, not a trained elite.
Instagram: Instagram, a photo sharing application created by the endeavors of two entrepreneurs at the end of 2010, mainly enables the sharing of photos in mobile devices on social networks.