Start Date
11-12-2016 12:00 AM
Description
In this paper we take a practice-based lens and argue for the agentic role of materiality in social media use. We draw on Goffman’s literature on impression management and focus on performances enacted through a variety of social media platforms. Supported by extensive qualitative fieldwork with social media users, we provide examples of practices that help us to improve our understanding of how the materiality of social media has the ability to translate sociomaterial practices across space and time together with the role of algorithms. We contribute to the sociomateriality literature by showing how online practices are affected by the agentic role of materiality, and how materiality affects practices, and we do so by discussing affordances and imbrications in social media settings. We also contribute to the social media literature more generally by questioning the tout-court applicability of Goffman’s impression management theory to social media contexts.
Recommended Citation
Marabelli, Marco; Newell, Susan; and Galliers, Robert D., "The Materiality of Impression Management in Social Media Use: A focus on Time, Space and Algorithms" (2016). ICIS 2016 Proceedings. 14.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2016/ISOrganizations/Presentations/14
The Materiality of Impression Management in Social Media Use: A focus on Time, Space and Algorithms
In this paper we take a practice-based lens and argue for the agentic role of materiality in social media use. We draw on Goffman’s literature on impression management and focus on performances enacted through a variety of social media platforms. Supported by extensive qualitative fieldwork with social media users, we provide examples of practices that help us to improve our understanding of how the materiality of social media has the ability to translate sociomaterial practices across space and time together with the role of algorithms. We contribute to the sociomateriality literature by showing how online practices are affected by the agentic role of materiality, and how materiality affects practices, and we do so by discussing affordances and imbrications in social media settings. We also contribute to the social media literature more generally by questioning the tout-court applicability of Goffman’s impression management theory to social media contexts.