Differential Self-Presentation Across Multiple Social Network Sites

This study investigates the ways in which users of multiple social network sites (SNSs) differ their self-presentation across the various SNSs that they use; as well as analyzes how SNS users alter their self-presentation on SNSs based on their perceived audience. This study was granted permission by participants to follow their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts and to perform content analysis on the artifacts that they generated during the phase of observation. A grounded theory approach was implemented and was effective in coding and analyzing both the ephemeral and non-ephemeral content observed in this study. Results indicate that participants have distinct self-presentation styles that they construct for SNSs. Several differences among the user-generated content observed on each SNS demonstrates the ways in which self-presentation differs between platforms. Results also indicate that differential self presentation across SNSs may be determined by the platform’s technological affordances instead of the user’s perceived audience