How One's Online Image is Self-Representation
How Communication Reveals One’s True Self on the Internet
Jun 29, 2009 Cynthia Jones-Shoeman
Communication occurs online in many ways. What does communication say about people online when there is no other way to represent oneself? This article is third in a series about internet identity.
Emoticons Express Emotion
Internet communication is conducted without audible or visual cues. Because one cannot see a person’s facial expression or gestures or hear a person’s tone of voice, one can only rely on the text he reads. “Emoticons” and “netiquette” have aided online representation so that readers can “understand” what others are “saying” and how they are feeling. Emoticons (also known as “smileys”) were created to help a writer express her emotion or the intent of her text.
If someone is joking, she may type a colon followed by a right parenthetical to express a “smile”—:). There are myriad emoticons that express emotional ranges from happiness to sadness, from playfulness to anger. These “emotional icons” help readers know the writer’s intent or emotional state and can help reduce the chance of someone’s written communication being misunderstood.
Minding One's Manners: Netiquette
However, there are also other rules including “netiquette” behaviors that online users are advised to follow to avoid offending other users as well as aiding clear communication. Netiquette stands for “internet etiquette” and most netiquette behaviors are commonly known to frequent internet users.
Some netiquette rules include not typing in all capital letters (which communicates shouting or screaming, as in “I AM SHOUTING!”), not posting ads on forum or chat boards (rude and pushy), limiting the amount of text in one post (dominating the conversation), and staying on topic.
While many people might believe these behaviors constitute common courtesy (and, therefore, common sense), many individuals “lose” themselves online, forgetting that they are dealing with “real” people. Netiquette rules remind users that courtesy is appreciated in cyberspace, just as it is in person.
Other online communities have their own rules which often go above and beyond netiquette rules and govern how their users should behave. Most times these rules are written (often in the form of FAQs), but sometimes they are not and are discovered only as one becomes familiar with the community. The best advice is to “‘lurk [read the conversation without posting] before you leap’—get a feel for the local conventions before diving into conversation and inadvertently embarrassing [your]self” (“Netiquette”).
Text Equals Identity in Cyberspace
So if the playing field is leveled in internet conversation (and one knows how to communicate clearly), how does representation of self come into play? Ultimately, one chooses how he is represented online. One decide what he will (and won’t) share online and how much information he’ll divulge to others.
The way a person looks and other unique factors about who one is (such as gender or race) have little to do with how one represents oneself unless one chooses to share these facts as well (creating a username such as “macho_man” or “mother-of-five” automatically gives facts about one’s identity). One's text is who one is in cyberspace.
In real life, people also make choices about how they present themselves to others by the clothes they wear (very often, clothing is chosen to make a “statement”); how they speak (does one use slang or expletives, slur words, or use proper grammar?); and people often use or let their bodies make a statement with ornamentation (such as piercings, tattoos, jewelry, and makeup) or with their hygiene and hairstyles (does one care for onself or “let oneself go”?).
In real life face-to-face communication, people have no control over aspects of themselves such as gender, age, race, and sexual orientation, and very often they may be judged by these very things. But more often than not, the things one can control are they things what one is judged by more significantly in the long run.
First Impressions Online
In person, people are judged first by their looks, secondly by their words. “First impressions” more often than not relate to a person’s physical appearance.
Online, however, one can choose not to reveal any of these facets of oneself. Not only can one opt not to share markers such as age, gender, race, or sexual orientation, but one can also choose to share only positive information about oneself (“I am the CEO of restaurant chain” as opposed to “I am a recovering alcoholic”), or one can choose to be anonymous or even take on another personality, “hiding” behind a created identity.
However, there is not as large a difference between online representation and in-person representation as one might suspect. Instead, it is only that the “communicative environment and tools for self-presentation and context-building have changed.”
Most times, internet self-representation is merely an extension of the “‘real’ person into a different social environment” (Giese). Just as in real life, social context governs one's behavior. If a person is sitting in an English class, she behaves like a student (even if she acts like an unruly one). If she chats on eBay’s Elvis forum, her discussion will be related to Elvis or eBay in one way or another.
Just as in real life, one is expected to conform to social context. And also like real life, if one doesn’t conform, one must expect consequences for his behavior (whether he is ostracized or “punished”).
Internet Choices
People have just as many, if not more, choices online as they do in their day-to-day lives. Just like “real life,” one's online life is governed by rules as well, and learning these rules will make one's time online more pleasant.
Resources:
Giese, Mark. “Self Without Body: Textual Self-Representation in an Electronic Community.” First Monday: Peer-Reviewed Journal on the Internet. Volume 3. <http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/issue/view/91>
“Netiquette.” 26 Nov 2006. Wikipedia. 24 Nov 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette>.
First article in this series: How We Represent Ourselves on the Internet
Second: Online Image is Representation of Our Real Self
Communicating Online
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