oversharing

Intention

This module's reflections on selfies and self-representation led me in particular to consider the more subtle ways that a profile picture represents the user. In particular, I drew on Goffman's theory of  performed self-maintenance and presentation bringing a sense of "presentness" to one's face-to-face  interactions. The profile picture is the most public part of your profile, but in a way, it's also the most personal. When you talk to friends in chat, particularly on facebook, profile pictures take on a stronger relationship to identity. Opening a chat bubble on mobile leaves your friend's profile image hovering around your screen, regardless of what you're doing on the phone. At a glance, multiple conversations are indicated by the profile image, not the user's name. You even see a smaller version of their profile image in the message log, letting you know how far they've read. This experience encourages the association of the profile image with the person you're chatting with, and in the most extreme sense, becomes their "face-to-face" presentation. With this consideration in mind, it now seems quite in line with Goffman's theories that the profile picture generally is the user's favorite representation of themselves - which is not to say that people with "bad" profile pictures are akin to mentally ill people who cannot or choose not maintain their appearance, merely that there is a relation between the two ideas.

Following this idea further, I was intrigued by the idea of communicating a more dynamic, accurate (though not necessarily more flattering) self-presentation with a profile image that changed throughout the day. So long as the image was clearly of me, no one would have trouble interacting with me. Of course, this also meant that I had to continually upload a new photo of myself regularly, which some people find distasteful, but of all other options, I was most drawn to this one. 

Process

Instead of working intently on setting up each shot in advance, I opted for a more ad hoc approach. Each hour from 10:30am to 10:30pm, I would take a selfie that I felt depicted my current activities. Unfortunately, the day did not turn out quite as interesting as I had hoped and I spent the majority of it in one spot working on a project. Ideally, I would have waited for a day with more classes or more time away from work, but throughout the time this project was assigned, no such opportunity was available. I also sadly missed one of the photo times, and due to the temporal nature of the project was unable to repeat it. What I didn't have in location/activity variety, I tried to make up for with expressiveness. I spent all but a couple of my waking hours in Hamerschlag Hall, and attempted to document my growing distress and frustration through the images.  

The Selfies: In Order of Appearance

12 hours, many poor phone selfies, and a twinge of regret later, I completed my objective. 11 selfies in all were posted to Facebook, most remaining my official profile image for about an hour, with the 2:30 one remaining until 4:30 and the last one remaining up until the next morning.

Effects

I was pretty disappointed to discover that very few people had much to say at all about my choice. There were a couple chuckles, but the overall vibe that I got was that most people seemed to take it in stride. I can't say for sure whether this is just a quirk of my social group or simply that I didn't have enough going on for it to be noticable, but I didn't get enough natural feedback from anyone to draw conclusions. 

The few responses I did have were from good friends and of course, my mother. I did learn after the fact that a few other people had considered commenting on it, but didn't really prioritize it. One friend said she "actually just got used to it way too fast," which to me indicates that the flop was probably because there was so little changing in the pictures.

Reflections

I have mixed feelings about how this project turned out. While I think the idea had potential, I don't think I fully explored the level of changing self-representation that I had hoped to. Mostly, I felt limited by the constraints of time and work in other classes. I also think that my audience was probably not ideal for my choice, since I already tend to post on facebook erratically and sometimes with an intentional absurdist perspective. 

Given more time and a bit more thought to how exactly I wanted to present my "changing self," I think I would have been more satisfied with my results.