How Twitter Changes Your Identity
Social networks like Twitter not only blur the line between public and private selves, but also between authentic and contrived ones. An author finds herself inventing her own psychology.
Social networks like Twitter not only blur the line between public and private selves, but also between authentic and contrived ones. Encouraged to open a Twitter account by her publisher to promote a forthcoming book, Peggy Ornstein finds herself inventing her own psychology: “If all the world was once a stage, it has now become a reality TV show: we mere players are not just aware of the camera; we mug for it. The expansion of our digital universe—Second Life, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter—has shifted not only how we spend our time but also how we construct identity.”
