Reading Pearson made me ponder why I don’t participate much in online social networks. Maybe I’m uncomfortable with the kind of performance that occurs there, or with the kind of fluid digital identity I would need to assume. I agree that individuals – whether online or face-to-face – “continually perform their identities.” I’m certainly no exception: I act differently with my Mom, for example, than with a stranger. So why am I so uncomfortable transferring my “act,” so to speak, to the digital world? Why, in short, don’t I use Facebook?
Pearson’s discussion of the “glass bedroom” provided some clues: on a SNS, you are performing to different audiences simultaneously. You are both performing to your intimate friends (Mom), and at the same time to a random stranger who might be passing through. This need to create an identity that can be both public and private at the same time may explain my discomfort.