Digital arenas and the subjectivity of the individual: changing rhetorics of the self

1. Digitalarenas and thesubjectivityof the individual: changing rhetorics of the self • LiveJournal: http://noiablog.livejournal.com/profile • Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paalb/ • DeviantArt: http://zezillia.deviantart.com/gallery/ • Deiligst/Penest: http://www.deiligst.no/http://www.penest.no • MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/_theimportanceofbeingidle • Cases for interpreting norms and expectations for legitimate forms of self-presentations. • Assertive attention-seekers?

2. Questions and method • Have norms and expectations for self-presentations become more liberal? • How do individuals choose to present their selves, and how do we create convincing representations of selves? (Rhetorics of self) • Empirical examples from photo-sharing services, blogs, social profiles, deiligst/penest + qualitative interviews with 20 informants aged between 15 an 18.

3. Self and subjectivity • Two aims: • 1. To present a theoretical understanding of self and subjectivity • 2. To provide a sketch of the traditional and modern ideal-typical gdflsubject. • Subjects in relation to other subjects: we imagine our appearance to others and adjust our self partly to how we believe our appearance will be judged. • * A subject in itself (the ”I”) • * A subject for others • * A subject of the knowledge and discourses in society • Subjectivity: how our immediated self is always already part of a complex social discourse.

4. Self and subjectivity • The premodern self: self-development in accordance to preordained aims and truths. • The modern reflexive self: continuously working with defining, constructing and changing social and private roles. Self-development seen as key virtue and challenge. • I am not suggesting that the late-modern reflexive self is something entirely different, but technology has made explicit self-presentations abundantly available. • Technological/social development within a revised constructivist frame.

5. Changing rhetorics of the self • Photographic representations of self • Social representations of self • Personality-based representations (incl. memes and lists) • Presence in terms of knowledge, skills, creativity, values • Key-word: CONTROL

6. 1. Photos of self • Digital cameras provide users with near endless possibilities to experiement with photos of selves and to edit and delete photos that to not concur with the ”I”. • Differences between digital cameras and camphones, as camphones are always with you? • Adolescents do not post semi-nude and semi-pornographic photos of themselves only because they have the technological affordances to do so, but because what appears as legitimate representations of self seem to have changed in Western socities.

8. 2. Social representations • MySpace friends-lists: http://www.myspace.com/landstad • Same thing with blogrolls, Flickr, DeviantArt • Showing who you are through your friends • Not actually new with digital personal media • How ”real” are online friends?

9. 3. Personality • How do you present yourself when you do not know your audience? • Interests- and preference-lists: music, movies, books, tv (who am I in relation to others? Who do I want to identify with?) • http://www.myspace.com/annie_bonham • http://eclipsu.livejournal.com/profile • Meme: when ideas and questions are posted on one blog and responded to by other bloggers. • http://guzh.deviantart.com/

11. 4. Knowledge, skills, creativity, values • http://suuzneko.livejournal.com/143847.html • http://home.no/helgepb/

12. Limits of the public self • Late-modern individuals still relate to limits and constraints of self-presentations. • You can control your own presentation of self, but you can never know who your audience will be.