Abstract

GERMANO, Idilva Maria Pires et al. Myself on facebook: users’ perceptions of personal images shared on the network. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2018, vol.24, n.2, pp.482-505. ISSN 1677-1168.  https://doi.org/10.5752/P.1678-9563.2018v24n2p482-505.

This paper discusses the presentation of self and its relation to new "gazing technologies". Facebook users were invited to choose a personal photo they had posted on their profiles and were asked about their choice (its meaning, relation to life history, reasons to post, friends’ reactions, motivation for posting new images). The answers from 33 Facebook users, mostly college students, 20 to 30 years old, received thematic analysis. The analysis highlighted images and arguments associated to entertainment, happiness and authenticity, dominant values in consumer society. To be on Facebook involves the monitoring of one’s own or someone else’s activity of sharing personal images and observing their reception on that space. The images are used mainly to convey a desirable self-portrait that expresses a person’s life style but not her/his life story. We conclude that sharing personal photos on social networking sites plays an important role in today’s personal identity construction.

Keywords : Visual culture; Digital photographs; Presentation of self; Social networking sites; Facebook.

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