Progress Report. Plus, Identity as Self-Disclosure, Performance and Impression Management (Goffman)

The progress report last Tuesday (3/24) demonstrated that I have a few holes (some might say gaping) in the research I am collecting for the bibliography. Because fractal identities has expanded to include alternative identities, virtual identities, and avatars -- basically, it centers on multiple identities as manifested in digital or virtual environments -- I may have bitten off more than I can chew research-wise, and I will have to be selective in the resources I choose for the project. I do intend to do my topic justice, but the bibliography may not be ... exhaustive ... extensive but not exhaustive. Suffice it to say, much work remains to be done, from posting more blog entries, to completing the bibliography, to developing a final presentation (video or some form of multimedia I'll link in the blog) that brings the project to a close. My audience and I walked away from my progress report session perhaps with more questions than answers. At the same time, I feel as if some of the questions asked did not pertain to or were meant to be answered by this project. At the very least, I recognize that this project still has a few shortcomings, but I am confident I can address them before the project's deadline near the end of the semester.

In any event, I set about catching up on thinkers who I overlooked in my research. Two major figures on identity theory (major oversights) were brought to my attention: Donna Haraway (in particular, the theme of fractured identities in "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century") and Erving Goffman (in particular, the concept of identity, rather, presentation of self as individual or dramatic performance in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life). I will delay commenting on Haraway until I can get her essay “Cyborg Manifesto” read and processed. It is recondite in every sense of the word, and it will require some time to interpret, if I can do that correctly. Critiques and reviews warn that it is an essay easily misinterpreted and mis-read. For now, we shall set it aside.

On the other hand, I think I can comment on Goffman, considering that he’s a bit more accessible than Haraway. Furthermore, I’ve been reading an article entitled “Self-Disclosure Online” by Alison Attrill of De Montfort University, UK (Encyclopedia of Cyber Behavior -- the treatment here is thorough and scholarly, so do not scoff that the publication is listed as an encyclopedia). The author regards Goffman’s presentation of self/identity via individual performance through the lens of online technology. My understanding of Goffman is that he literally sees all life as a stage, to crudely paraphrase Shakespeare:

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts

According to Goffman, when individuals (actors) interact with others, they regard them as an audience to which they play for the purpose of acquiring social approbation. Individuals alter not only aspects about themselves, but the setting in which the interaction takes place (to the extent they are alterable) in order to generate or reinforce positive self-image, gain approval, or minimize negative social consequences such as embarrassment. Identity building becomes an act of give-and-take, feedback-and-response between the individual (actor) and the other (audience). In other words, the act requires a level of interaction and reciprocity between the actor and the audience. It takes two to tango in the play of self-disclosure.

That description covers the gist of offline self-disclosure. Add technology to the mix, and numerous aspects of the Goffmanian individual/dramatic performance fundamentally change. For instance, the online media of e-mail, dating profiles, and Facebook profiles allow the individual-actor to confront or even avoid the major pitfalls that often preclude offline self-disclosure, such as social anxiety, embarrassment, or fear for personal security. Thanks to asynchronous communication in online environments, the performance of self-disclosure can be carefully and meticulously meted out. The actor can easily receive feedback to self-selected personal, private information and respond on his/her own time without the pressure of in-person immediacy. Words can be chosen carefully. Profiles and blog entries can be edited and manipulated to bring certain personal characteristics to light and/or disguise or remove less flattering ones. Online communication technologies imbue actors with a certain freedom of expression via asynchronicity and, to some extent, anonymity (at least a perceived anonymity) that enhance impression management in ways Goffman would have never anticipated.

Attrill makes an convincing argument that online technology changes the quantity of self-disclosure (SD) rather than its quality. Online profiles, blogs, message boards, e-mail and texting all allow SD to occur more frequently and seeminlgy with less effort, that is, without the social inhibitions that plague offline SD. If SD, in Goffman's sense, is to be equated with one's identity and identity-building, I would argue that not only does online technology change SD quantitatively, but contrary to Attrill's assertion, it most certainly alters it qualitatively. In other words, online communication technologies alter identity (SD) fundamentally, at its core, in more than just a quantitative sense, that is, in more ways than what I read to mean the amount and frequency of disclosure. It isn't simply how much and at what rate the self is disclosed, what about the self is disclosed fundamentally changes, too. That is a point I will take up in the next blog entry when I take into account behavioral psychologist Elias Aboujaoude's Virtually You.