| Abstract [eng] |
The digital media has an increasing impact on modern society. Social networks have become a part of popular culture, while at the same time – a way for human self-representation. This thesis is based on identity formation in social networks. According to traditional theories, identity is a social construct, therefore the thesis examined how identity is formed in the social networking space. Digital social networks supply favorable conditions to create a multiple personality - hyper ego. The hypothesis was raised stating that social networking users create illusory multiple identities in different social media channels. The aim of this thesis is to find out by what means and how the users of the social networks form their identities in different media channels. The analysis of scientific literature and netnography method were employed to achieve the goal of this thesis. The analysis of relevant literature revealed, that 'the most important means of identity formation in social networking are social networking software, interaction, self-representation and social capital. Since the identity is multifaceted by its‘ nature, when it is moved to the virtual space, the identity is broken down by the categories of the social networks. Based on the means of self-representation that were identified during content analysis, further research was carried out. Self-representation was monitored through images and text information in 24 user profiles of 4 social network platforms : Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. The study revealed that the indications of hyper ego - striving to dominate in every field, is more typical of a high level impact users. Low impact level users are more likely to create the illusion by using visual communication. Thus, the results of the study confirmed the hypothesis and enabled to develop a model for personal identity formation in social networks Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram which shows how multiple identity is split in different media channels. |
