Identity, Social Networks and Online Communication

Abstract

Arguments about whether or not the Internet is creating new people or simply helping us to see ourselves in new ways are threaded through the literature on digital culture. People make new technology and exploit it for their own purposes and so it is reasonable to suggest that any changes in our social identities are wider in their reach than the digital media through which they may be expressed. By taking a perspective that is informed by the social theory of Giddens, this article explores the relationship between identity performance and social network theory, and in so doing, aims to set an agenda for future research that enables us to capture how identities are played out across social networks in both online and offline interactions.