Formulación de la norma primaria y permiso

In online interaction, there are limited ways to observe one’s self-presentation, as the disclosure of information is controllable by users and sometimes their authenticity is suspected (Joinson, 2008). In the initial stage of interactions, people spend considerable effort making and managing impressions (Goffman, 1959). In SNSs, users can organise the information disclosure and enhance their self-image by strategically selecting how and what to present to the receiver (Walther et al., 2008). Similarly, it has been reported that Facebook users have manipulated their friend by portraying a different perception about their lives, even with those whom they have met in offline settings (Ellison, et al., 2006).

One of the early studies on self-presentation in SNSs was by Donath and Boyd (2004) who studied ‘Friendster’, one of the early SNSs that encouraged its users to use their real name, unlike previous SNSs in which being anonymous was acceptable. Friendster allowed users to negotiate presentations of self publicly and connect with others. Donath and Boyd (2004) have noted that individuals display their Friend list and social connections publicly in SNSs as they aim to provide proof that the information they share about themselves is real, but they do this to varying degrees. On the same subject, Marwick (2005) have examined users on three different SNSs and concluded that they had complex strategies for presenting profiles in an ‘authentic’ form, while Boyd (2008), in the study of Facebook and MySpace, concluded that profiles could never be ‘real’ even after the real-name policies, and there are ‘fakesters’ in all SNSs.

Audience in SNSs (known as ‘Friends’ in the case of Friendster and Facebook) to one’s profile have been identified as an important factor for participation and also presentation of self in the sites. Early examples are from Friendster users who admitted that creating and managing a particular image for one’s friends is a reason for choosing to connect with particular friends (Donath and Boyd, 2004). In defining “Friends” Boyd (2006) has suggested that friends in the SNSs act as an imagined audience in shaping a guideline for one’s self-presentation. Detailed examination of the testimonial function of Friendster as

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a self-presentation device by Boyd and Heer (2006) showed that the attractiveness of one’s friends affects others’ view of one’s self-presented image in a positive manner. In a study of social capital and its relationship to control among Facebook users, Ellison et al., (2007) found that Facebook led to a significant increase in well-being and self- esteem for shy people. They have also repeated the survey study among those with less shy natures and concluded that this effect was not found in people who were less shy. They have argued that this is because Facebook provides users with better control over how they manage their self-presentation. However, it is not clear in their methodology how they have identified and distinguished the less shy from the shy individuals in their study.

When considering self-presentation in online settings one might question whether, when the aim is a performance to a targeted audience, privacy concerns are only valid about an unknown audience. Baym (2010) has suggested that the display of personal information and ideas of self or performance as Goffman refers to it, show others that “we are real, available, and that we like them, as does our willingness to entertain them” (p. 62). In conducting a performance, based on the play metaphor, Facebook is a form of stage in which public display of performance is expected to be displayed, but Facebook’s affordances allow the performer to adjust the performance to the target audience, and here, we could see the creation of different stages based on privacy concerns. The performer (profile owner) is known to be responsible for the displayed performance, but as has been argued in Boyd (2010), network publics’ dynamics and affordances permit other users (in the case of Facebook, people from the friend list) to shape the performance by voluntarily contributing to the performance.

Friends in the Facebook Friend list contribute to one’s self-presentation practices. Joinson et al., (2011) have argued that contributions of others to one’s profile page happen through wall posts, Likes, comments, and the tagging of photos or location. Ellison et al., (2007) have identified that disclosure and access to information on Facebook build and bridge social capital, but at the same time disclosure of private and personal information which leads to negative results as in Facebook one’s friends usually range from family and social contacts to professional and work contacts. Boyd (2008) has argued that the range of different people in one’s profile is a form of social convergence created by the dynamics of the mediated publics: “social convergence occurs when disparate social

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contexts are collapsed into one” (p. 6). The existence of this group of people (one’s friends, family, co-workers and other causal social contacts) under one Facebook ‘Friend list’ could contribute to one’s Facebook profile with a variety of content, such as comments and sharing information and hence contribute to shaping one’s self online Boyd (2010b) has referred to the former situation as context collapse. Ellison et al., (2011) have suggested three strategies that Facebook users might employ to manage and control different audience’ existence in one profile; these are friending behaviours, disclosures on the site, and managing audience via privacy settings. Similarly, Pew Internet Research (2012) reported that by comparing their previous study’s results in which Facebook users reported the difficulties about managing privacy settings, this report highlighted the growing attempts to configure privacy controls to manage different audience and privacy in general among American users.

Authorities and government agencies’ use of Facebook information for prosecuting individuals is well documented in the popular press. Legally, the information on Facebook visible to the public is considered as public information and therefore has been used for and against its users. For example Ward (2007) have reported on the use of Facebook content by criminal defence solicitors to research witnesses in the American context. In Iran, the use of Facebook content by law enforcement agencies has been used to incriminate individuals for a variety of reasons and there have been cases of imprisonment and the death penalty reported through Western-based news agencies as a result of Facebook use (for example BBC 2012, BBC 2014 and The Guardian).