The Relational Self-Portrait: Selfies Meet Social Networks
[PLACEHOLDER: Annotation on how selfies function as relational self-portraits within social network contexts.]
Appears in themes
Social networking sites encourage users to construct "relational self-portraits," which are dynamic, selective digital selves that exist only through connections to others. The platform's architecture determines what aspects of identity become visible and to whom, making self-representation inseparable from the technical infrastructure that mediates it.
The "relational self-portrait" concept captures how identity on social networking sites is constituted through connections rather than attributes alone. This is an epistemological claim about selfhood: who you are on a platform is inseparable from who you are connected to, making identity a network property rather than an individual one.