Andra Siibak Extraordinary Research Fellow University of Tartu Institute of Journalism and Communication E-mail: andras@ut.

ee

Visual self-presentation on social networking sites. Discrepancies between the ought and the real
The aim of my article is to show what aspects of the self young people would like to emphasise on the photos accompanying their profiles in social networking sites(SNS), and what is considered to be crucial by the 12-17 year olds` in order to become popular among one`s peers in the online community. The opinions of young people are compared to the findings of the visual analysis of photos of youngsters who belonged to the TOP 100 most remarkable men and women of the most popular SNS in Estonia, Rate (www.rate.ee). I use Erving Goffman`s ideas from the book Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) and the self-discrepancy theory of Higgins (1987) as a starting point in order to introduce the habits of self-monitoring and self-presentation in the online environments. Theories of Erwin Goffman (1959/1990) that were first coined for the off-line environment have also become very useful when talking about presenting the self in an online context. While communicating in offline as well as online worlds people are always trying to obtain information about each other, in order to be able to know in advance what to expect and what kind of response to give. Goffman was the first to emphasize the importance of impression management i.e. people often engage in activities in order "to convey an impression to others which it is in his interests to convey" (Goffman 1959: 4). People are interested in controlling the impressions they are about to convey to the others, so they could be consciously or unconsciously calculating their actions and behaviours. According to Goffman (1959/1990) impressions are formed through interpreting two kinds of sign activity: the expression given and the expression given off. The former of which is expressed during verbal communication, the latter is expressed through ones looks in general. In order to find out what kind of qualities and

features are thought to be sought by potential partners a person may have to perform several acts before receiving the approval they were looking for. Furthermore, Goffman (1959/1990) states that individuals tend to accentuate and suppress certain aspects of the self depending on the context of the situation. Whenever other persons are present, people tend to accentuate these aspects of the self that typically correspond to norms and ideals of the group the person belongs to, or wishes to belong to. We are constantly monitoring the self in order to earn the approval of others, in order to form positive impressions about ourselves. Identity management however, needs a lot of work. Especially in case the norms and expectations of the society or important others differ from our own. These differences between the various types of self-beliefs or self-state perceptions were formed into a selfdiscrepancy theory by E. Tory Higgins (1987, 1989). According to Higgins (1987: 32021) we have three types of self-domains: (1) the actual self, which is one's representation of the attributes that are believed (by oneself or another) to be possessed by an individual; (2) the ideal self, which is one's representation of the attributes that someone (either oneself or another) would like one to possess; and (3) the ought self, which refers to the attributes that someone (oneself or another) believes one should possess. One's own perspective on the actual-self can also be viewed as the self concept. Other self-state representations, such as one's own hopes and wishes for the self (ideal-self) or the duties or obligations that are presumed to be held by one's significant others for the self (oughtself), provide important goals, standards, or self guides for self-regulation. The virtual spaces of the Internet have given people extraordinary freedom for experimenting with these different self-domains. Young people are especially keen on testing these various aspects of their identity in the Internet (Vybiral et al. 2004: 173). Therefore, it is even claimed that online communities have turned into identity workshops(Bruckman 1992 cited in Roberts and Parks 2001: 268) where people can construct and re-construct their different self-domains. Theorists (Petkova 2005: 6), however, have even noted that in the new media environments people may easily switch from the `real to the chosen `ought` identity. Therefore, in case of communicating online the impression management is formulated into a ever-present worry of needing to perform oneself appropriately, and the twin need to be constantly evaluated as acceptable,

or simply okay, in the context of one` s peers (Clark 2005: 217). These different performances need to be modified according to the received feedback, so that the messages given off could be read out as impressions the person was trying to convey. Walker (2001) claims that people often use gender scripts for self narratives so that identities and processes of identification occur within the social networks and power relations that are most familiar in society (Walker 2001, referred by Thiel 2005: 187). Shayla Marie Thiel (2006) also admits that females and males `perform` what they interpret their gender to be based upon, what culture has taught them is the correct (heterosexual) interpretation of gender (Thiel 2006: 182). Therefore, although one is allowed to adopt whatever identity one chooses in virtual environments, studies have shown that men and women still tend to offer attributes thought to be sought by the opposite sex (Albright 2001; Schmidt & Buss 1996).

Visual self-presentation on SNS On most of the social networking sites people can also add their photos to accompany their profiles that would also serve a very specific role in the online selfpresentation context. Based on their study about self-presentation in online-dating environment Ellison et al. (2006) claim that the photographs used on the profile served to warrant or support claims made in textual descriptions i.e. people used photographs not only to visualize their looks, but also to emphasize the things and qualities that were important for them. Therefore Ellison et al suggest (2006) that a photo of a man posing without a shirt on and another photo of the same man standing in front of the wall were his diplomas were displayed, function on many levels. On the one hand the photos are supporting the discursive claims made in the textual part of the profile; on the other hand they are giving an overview of a person` s self-concept and physical characteristics. Still, as photos may be staged performances it is often quite hard to capture whether the photos presented are actually representation of behaviors or a re-presentation of them (boyd 2006). Nevertheless, research (Ellison et al 2006) has confirmed that people are very conscious of their selection of photos and even the different poses and behaviors they are portraying on them are formed according to the set of rules which are also used for assessing the photos of others.

Estonian Youngsters and Rate (www.rate.ee) Social networking website Rate was opened on May 1. 2002 (www.rate.ee). The name of the social networking site is actually a mirror to the main idea of the site rating. Rate is a website where people can post their photos and other personal data in order to receive comments and points from other website users. Every active user of the site is able to view photos of others and rate and comment them according to their preference. Only users who have photos on the site are able to comment and rate others, the ones with no photo, do not have that chance. Besides the opportunity to download their photos and receive comments from others, the website provides the users with different opportunities to spend their free time e.g. send e-mails, chat in forums, keep their blog, read horoscopes, and converge among different communities. Furthermore, there are different popularity charts formed in Rate where a hierarchy among the users is created on many levels e.g. TOP 1000 of the most remarkable men and women, The most famous users, Most popular dates, Most often viewed profiles, etc. Although Rate is most popular among teenagers, it is not just a sight for young people looking for social feedback and an ego boost; in fact the site has become immensely popular among the whole population. The figures found on the statistics page of Rate show that there are more than 300 000 people registered as active users of the site (www.rate.ee). Even though the abovementioned numbers are taken from the statistics page of Rate and therefore, should be handled with some suspicions, Rate is definitely one of the most actively used websites in Estonia. The site Rate is equally popular among both sexes as 50% of the users are male and 50% are female. The biggest numbers of users live in the cities Tallinn (38%), Tartu (14%), Prnu (8%), Viljandi (4%), Rakvere (4%), etc. Most of the users of the site are driven by a need to communicate, a need to be exposed (social feedback), also to make new acquaintances and to actualize themselves and to have the clear picture of the surrounding(www.rate.ee). All of these reasons were also brought up by the young Rate users in the survey Youth and the Media 2007 made by the Institute of Journalism and Communication of Tartu University. This survey confirmed that 35% of the youngsters use Rate in order to find new friends and

acquaintances (Youth and the Media, 2007 database). The influence of peers is also of high importance when becoming a member of Rate, as 43% of the youngsters said that they decided to create a profile in Rate because their friends already had one. Furthermore, 17% of the teenagers agreed that they created a profile to hear what other users thought of them, i.e. they were in search of social feedback. 24% of the students questioned had created a profile because they just wanted to take a look at the people who were the users of the website. Some of the youngsters even believe the saying If you are not a user of Rate you do not exist at all! is true as 4% of them admit that this saying was one of the reasons why they decided to become members of Rate.

METHODS AND DATA The article is based on the results of two studies. First of all, my study is based on the analysis of photos of youngsters who were selected to be among the TOP 100 of the most remarkable men and women in Rate. Content analysis was carried out to analyse 117 photos of young men and 105 photos of girls who appeared in the TOP 100 from August 2005 February 2006. Content analysis methodology and the theories of Ervin Goffman (1976) followed up by the research by Kang (1997) and Umiker-Sebeok (1996) was used in my study. Furthermore, the method of reading images that was introduced by Kress and van Leeuwen` s (1996) and developed further in the studies of Bell (2001) was also used for building categories for content analysis. Although most of the categories formed for my content analysis have been originally used in order to study the representations of gender on advertisements my previous studies have shown that they function equally well on the analysis of photographs on a social networking site. I am on the opinion that the photos used for impression management and creating an image of oneself on a social networking site can even be named advertising the self in the virtual world. Hereby, I agree with Emily Marwick who has stated that increasingly, people strategically formulate and present their identities to convey particular messages or to position themselves for consumption by others(2005:90). The main coding categories that are going to be further discussed in the paper were conceptually described as follows:

(1) Participants: accompanying persons on the photo (alone, same sex friend(s); a friend(s) of the opposite sex; group of mix gender friends, child(ren); group of people at the background) as well as the animate and inanimate objects visible on the photo. (2) Activities. A number of activities were grouped under the headings entertaining, sports, romance, and everyday doings. Under the entertaining category activities like singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument were grouped. Youngsters that played basketball, swam, surfed, roller skated or were engaged in other sporting activities were grouped under the category sports. Young people who were kissing, hugging or embracing their friends and partners on the photos were grouped into the category of romance. In the category of everyday doings we could see youngsters talking on the phone, eating or drinking, taking photos, having conversations with their friends, etc. (3) Location. The Category was cut into three different subcategories depending on the location where the photo is taken - indoors (apartment, bedroom, office, classroom, nightclub etc.), in the wilderness (in the woods; near a lake/sea/river; in the park/garden, etc.) or in the city (on the street; near a (famous) building, etc.). (4) Body Display. The purpose of this category was to examine whether youngsters felt the need to emphasize their body in sexually revealing manner. The photos were analyzed from the standpoint to see if youngsters were wearing revealing or hardly any clothes (underwear; swimming trunks, shorts; bathing suits, etc) or no clothes at all (no shirts on, any trousers on, etc). The data for my second study is derived from a questionnaire survey carried out in comprehensive schools in three cities (Tallinn, Tartu and Prnu) in autumn 2007 (N= 713) among 12 to 17 year-old pupils. The available indicators enable me to analyze what kinds of aspects pupils consider to be important while choosing the photos for their SNS profile and what qualities are though to be crucial in order to become popular among the SNS community members.

Results The findings are presented in three sections. First of all, based on the results of the survey among 12-17 year olds` an overview is given of the aspects that the young consider important while selecting photos for their SNS profiles. Secondly, youngsters` opinions about what aspects they believe to be crucial in order to become popular among the users of the SNS are presented. The results from the visual analyses of the photos found on the profiles of youngsters who were selected to belong to the popularity chart Top 100 of the most remarkable men and women of Rate is used as complimentary material in order to illustrate the differences between the ought and the real. The paper pays special attention to the gender differences found in comparison of the opinions of the young and the analyses of photos on SNS.

SNS Photo Selection Criteria The 12-17 year old youngsters consider one`s beautiful looks the most important aspect while choosing the photo for their SNS profile (See Table 1). 56.1% of the girls and 31.1% of the boys believe that looking good on the photo is the main element one has to pay attention to while choosing a photo to accompany one`s SNS profile. Table 1. What aspects you consider important while choosing photos for your SNS profile? Girls Boys
I look good on the photo Photo is taken in beautiful surroundings Photo has a nice look in general My friends/family/acquaintances accompany me on the photo Photo commemorates an important moment in my life Photo reflects my essence Good photo-processing Important objects/things on the photo Interesting activity shown in the photo 56.1% 47.6% 41.1% 31.1.% 20.7% 16.0%

p
.000 .000 .000

39.1% 39.1% 38.0% 32.3% 28.9% 28.6%

14.8% 14.8% 14.8% 16.8% 12.9% 19.6%

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .005

Photo describes my lifestyle My clothing is trendy What kind of clothing-style I like Photo is taken in a famous place Photo is made by a famous photographer What kind of brands I prefer

15.9% 15.3% 15.0% 13.9% 12.5% 5.1%

18.2% 11.8% 13.4% 7.6% 6.7% 6.2% .007 .009

Although both genders feel a need to download a photo that is taken in beautiful surroundings (girls 47.6%, boys 20.7%), that would commemorate an important event like graduation, wedding, etc. in one`s life (girls 39.1%, boys 14.8%) or where significant others (friends, family, acquaintances) are accompanying the profile owner on the photo (girls 39.1%, boys 14.8%) the abovementioned aspects are far more important for the girls than for the male counterparts as the differences between genders are all statisticallysignificant. Girls also value highly photos that reflect their essence (38%), the aspect of which is only modestly valued by the boys (14.8%). Young men, nevertheless, are slightly more interested in selecting photos that would describe their lifestyle (18.2%) than girls (15.9%). However the difference between the genders in that question is not statistically important. The practical aspects e.g. good photo processing and fame of the photographer is influencing the photo selection of the girls more than for the boys. Clothing and brands, however, are considered least important while selecting one`s own photos for the SNS by either of the sexes. The analysis of the answers shows that girls are much more conscious of their selection of photos on the profile. They value both the aesthetic (e.g. beautiful surroundings, photo has a nice look in general), emotional (e.g. important moment, important others), self reflectory (e.g. photo reflects my essence, describes my lifestyle), as well as practical (good photo-processing, famous photographer) aspects of photographing more than their male counterparts while creating their virtual self. Young men, on the other hand, seem only mildly interested in choosing photos where their handsome looks are portrayed.

Expectations of the virtual peer group In the survey we asked the youngsters what qualities and aspects a person needs to have in order to become popular among other SNS users. The answers of the young reflect what 12-17 year olds` believe to be valued and treasured qualities among the peer group (Table 2). Table 2: What aspects you consider important/ very important in order to become popular among the users of the SNS?
GIRLS Important/ very important 84.5% 75.6% 72.1% 71.4% 70.1% 66.1% 70.2% 74.3% BOYS Important/ very important 78.8% 67.4% 65.9% 63%

Beautiful looks Photo processing Large social network Large fame/knowing the right people Trend conscious clothing Sexiness Objects/things on the photo (cars, animals, etc)

44.7%

42.1%

The analyses of the youngsters` answers suggest that the young are doing the right thing if to select photos were they appear to be most handsome. 78.8% of the boys and 84.5% girls believe that a person foremost has to be good-looking in order to become popular among one`s virtual network. Nevertheless, having just good looks is not always enough, the young believe. 74.3% of boys and 66.1% of girls believe a person should also look sexy in order to gain popularity among one`s peer group. Trend conscious clothing is also viewed as a necessary component of popularity. The idea is supported by 70.2% of the boys and 70.1% of the girls. Still, material possessions as a whole do seem not to play that important in the eyes of the young. Only 44.7% girls and 42.1% boys agree on the assumption that material things and one`s possessions visible on the photos play big enough role in gaining popularity. When leaving aside one`s physical qualities and the content of one`s cupboard, the great impact of photo processing on becoming popular is admitted by 75.6% of the girls. Boys are not that eager to confirm the influence a Photoshop could have on their

popularity as 67.4% consider photo processing to be important in order to become popular. Both of the genders (72.1% of the girls and 65.1% boys) equally support the idea that the popularity among one`s peers in SNS can be gained if one has large enough network to begin with. Number of friends one has in one`s friends list is correlated to the popularity of the person on the SNS. Therefore having hundreds of friends is believed to be a highly valuable asset by the young. Furthermore, being friends with the right people, e.g. people who have already made their way to the popularity charts, would also lead to one`s rise in the SNS hierarchy, believe 71.4% of the girls and 63% of the boys. Visual self-presentation on SNS As the survey results suggested the youngsters need to stand out among the others and emphasise ones` looks was also visible on the photos. The most remarkable men and women of Rate had rightly guessed the expectations their peer group had about their appearance. Sexiness, trend conscious clothing and beautiful looks were all generously displayed on the photos. For example, in order to look more sexy and seductive, the most remarkable girls of Rate had decided to wear clothing that would emphasise their sexualised body parts. A number of girls wore a tight top that was revealing either their bare stomach (15%) or bare back (4%) in order to show their toned and fit bodies. There were also girls who were posing in miniskirts (10%), bikinis (6%), in underwear (4%) or only with their bra on (3%). All in all there were only 22% of the girls who were fully dressed so that no sexualised body parts (breasts; cleavage; stomach; back) were revealed. The results of the photo analysis also show a growing trend of objectification of mens bodies as quite a number of images of sexualized men could be found. For example, 15% of the young men were posing without their shirt on and 16% of the youngsters had unbuttoned their shirt to expose their muscles. The analysis of photos showed that the youngsters do not pose with important others that often as would be expected from the answers given to the survey. In contrast to the survey results, as much as 73% of the girls and 56% of boys used to pose alone on the photos (See Table 3).

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Table 3. Analysis of accompanying persons of the photos.

alone people on the background female friend male friend child(ren) group of female friends group of male friends group of mix-gender friends GIRLS 73% BOYS 56%

9% 8% 4% 4%

4% 14% 5% 3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

6%

Although the survey results suggest that youngsters are interested in capturing important moments in their lives as well as showing interesting activities on their photos, the visual analysis shows that the majority of young people prefer to pose passively in front of the camera. 83% of the photos of girls and 70% of the photos of boys portrayed youngsters that were not engaged in any purposeful activity. Rather than being engaged in romantic (2%), entertaining (0%), sporting (2%) or everyday activities (9%) a number of girls used statue-like poses of models in order to portray themselves on SNS. Compared to the girls, the photos of boys displayed the profile owner to be engaged in a bit wider variety of different activities. For example, in 14% of the photos boys were engaged in daily activitieslike eating, drinking, watching TV, talking on the cell phone, etc. In 8% of the photos boys were found to be kissing, hugging or just in the arms of their partners, i.e. engaged in romantic activities. On 7% of the photos boys were found to be singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument, i.e. engaged in entertaining activities. The survey results hint that youngsters consider beautiful surroundings quite important while starting their photo session. The analysis of photos showed that 67% boys, 56% girls associate beautiful surroundings with public places. 44% of the photos of boys and 35% of the girls had nature in the background e.g. in the woods, on the mountains, in the park, near a lake, etc. 13% of the photos of boys and 11% of girls were taken in the cityscape. On 10% of the cases, both boys and girls were seen dancing in 11

nightclubs, working in the office or studying in the classrooms. Private sphere was represented on 17% of the photos of girls and 18% of the boys. Still, a number of photos that could not be associated with any concrete location were found. 25% of the photos of girls and 15% of boys had to be categorised as decontextualised, as the location of the photo could not be classified. DISCUSSION The analysis of the young peoples` answers of what they consider to be important while selecting photos to accompany their profiles in SNS reveals that young people seem to be very conscious in selection of photos. Furthermore, youngsters have very clear expectations of aspects and qualities a person has to have in order to become popular among the SNS users. Still, we should take into account the fact that the visual analysis is not based on the photos of young people who answered the survey but of the photos of members of the TOP 100 of the most remarkable men and women if Rate. Nevertheless, visible discrepancies emerge between what we could expect to see on the photos based on the photo selection criteria revealed by 710 youngsters questioned. Based on the answers of the survey we could expect many youngsters posing with their important others on the photos, capturing important moments and activities from their lives. However the visual analysis of the photos reveals that the majority of youngsters are posing alone without being engaged in any purposeful activities in front of the camera. Beautiful looks, trend conscious clothing and sexiness are, on the other hand, valued highly among the youngsters posing on the photos as well as those answering the survey. Just as in the case of face-to-face communication people socialising through Internet are also hoping to create favourable impressions of themselves. Favourable impressions however, can only be created when we manage to assume what the others are expecting from us. Furthermore, different people have different expectations and ideas about how a positive impression could be formed in their eyes. For example, grown ups and teenagers generally are impressed about different things therefore, in order find out what kind of qualities and aspects are approved by our reference group, everyone is always and everywhere, more or less consciously, playing a role ( Robert Ezra Park, 1950: 249 cited in Goffman 1959: 19). Keeping this in mind, I assume that while the youngsters were counting the aspects their consider important to show on their photos,

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they were consciously or unconcsiously taking the view point of grown ups, as the compilers of the survey, into account and tried their best to form favourable impressions of themselves. With emphasising the need to select photos that would display important moments in their lives, portray their essence or where they appear together with important others, the youngsters seem to have tried to create their ideal self (Higgins 1987) taken from the point of view of important others (e.g. parents). This ideal self, especially in case of the girls, seems to being built upon the selfbeliefs, norms and values that are associated with the traditional female gender role. The girls were especially keen on emphasising that they consider almost all the proposed elements from the survey important while choosing their photos. They stress the need to look beautiful, one of the norms associated with the female gender role, however, they do not want to overemphasise the role of clothing and the brands their wear, as that statement could make them look too shallow in the eyes of grown-ups. When choosing photos that are taken in beautiful places, where interesting activity or important others or things are visible, the girls are feeling the need to stress their soft feminine values as the core of their essence. These things could seem like the right thing to say in the hopes of creating the social ideal self(Cooley 1902). Boys, on contrary, are much more lax about the choices they supposedly make for their SNS profiles. These discrepancies in genders have been explained by the socialization differences as females are said to develop stronger self-other contingencies than are males (Higgins 1991). It has been claimed that because of this sex-typed socialization process, girls may develop an orientation to regulate toward the guides of significant others whereas boys may develop an orientation to regulate toward their own self-regulatory guides (Cross & Madson, 1997; Hoffman, 1973, 1977). Virtual peer groups, however, act as important others whose expectations, are taken into account when naming the aspects and qualities that would lead to popularity in SNS. In this case, the youngsters were trying to create the ought selves i.e. represent the attributes they believed people should or ought to possess in order to become popular among the SNS users (Higgins 1987). The answers given reflect the differences between the reference groups according to whose expectations the youngsters have tried to model themselves. Beautiful looks, sexiness and trend conscious clothing were considered

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important in order to form favourable impressions in the eyes of the people belonging to the same age group. Rather than portraying one`s essence or posing in beautiful places, one`s trendy and sexy appearance ought to be exhibited when striving to be popular among the youngsters using SNS. The results of the visual analysis of photos of youngsters in the TOP 100 of the most remarkable men and women in Rate gives a reason to believe that the young are very well aware of the expectations of their peer group as all the above mentioned elements of the ought self were clearly visible on the photos. The visual selves of the youngsters combined both the in their narcissistic self-display emphasised by their choice of clothing (or the lack of it), their passivity that is usually portrayed through model-like behaviour and poses as well as the need to pose alone on most of the cases. A number of the most remarkable people of Rate have also used professional photo processing that was also viewed as crucial by the young. The aspects of the ideal self, on the other hand, were rarely displayed. The reason for this could be explained by the fact that the majority of SNS active and versatile users are young people, whose acceptance and positive feedback is considered to be more important than the grown ups. All in all it could be hypothesized that impression management in the online world varies according to the expectations of the reference group at hand. Young people combine different self-beliefs and expectations of important others, i.e. grown ups or their peers in order to form positive impressions about oneself. The virtual selves exhibited on the photos of SNS are constantly constructed and re-constructed based on the values associated with the ideal self or the ought self.

CONCLUSION The paper gave an overview of the beliefs of the young about what they consider important while choosing their photos for the SNS and the aspects and qualities a person should have in order to become popular among one`s peers in the SNS. The visual analyses of the photos found on the profiles of the most remarkable girls and boys of the SNS Rate were used as additional material in order illustrate the differences between the ought and the real.

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