Erika Pearson

Making a Good (Virtual) First Impression: The Use of Visuals in Online Impression Management and Creating Identity Performances

This paper argues that visual elements are becoming an increasingly important component of identity performance on social networking sites. Working from a narrative approach to identity, this paper explores how images on SNS are used both as part of an impression management strategy to present identity, and as signs that others on the site can read and interpret as they develop an understanding of the identity of others. Drawing on interview data conducted with users of the Livejournal SNS, this paper argues for a growing visual literacy among users of social networking sites.

The question concerning (internet) time

Spatial representations, metaphors and imaginaries (cyberspace, web pages) have been the mainstay of internet research for a long time. Instead of repeating these themes, this article seeks to answer the question of how we might understand the concept of time in relation to internet research. After a brief excursus on the general history of the concept, this article proposes three different approaches to the conceptualization of internet time. The common thread underlying all the approaches is the notion of time as an assemblage of elements such as technical artefacts, social relations and metaphors. By drawing out time in this way, the article addresses the challenge of thinking of internet time as coexistence, a clash of fluxes, metaphors, lived experiences and assemblages. In other words, this article proposes a way to articulate internet time as a multiplicity.

Community as Commodity: Social Networking and Transnational Capitalism

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are one of the most publicly discussed innovations of the Internet and particularly of ‘Web 2.0’. While community-building and social networking are certainly not new, the speed, scope and reach facilitated by these sites have heralded unprecedented innovation in the ways in which networked individuals approach their social networking. SNSs continue to grow, yet the balance between the technological features of such sites which support social networking and those which facilitate online advertising remains precarious, and frequently makes national and international news.

Shoefies and Huis: crafting community participation from the ground up

ABSTRACT This paper uses a case study drawn from the Twitter activity around a New Zealand Hui-style conference to explore the role that sharing playful shoefies (selfies of shoes) has in building trust and weak tie bonds between disparate conference participants. By considering the shoefie as a place where participants can perform salience and belonging, this paper argues that photographs of shoes fulfil a range of communicative and network functions that are underserved by the other communicative spaces available at the Hui. Furthermore, this paper argues that the structure of the Hui itself, as opposed to more formalised academic conference structures, further leverages the informality and playfulness of the shoefie in order to fulfil its specific goals of community engagement and equality among participants.