Social Media and Identity

Noelle Gauvin, Kiersten Laramee, and Alexa Silva

Digital
Literacy
Literacy: “one’s ability to
effectively use information
and tools for access to
information” (Gee)

Digital Literacy
• Multiple types of skills
The Digital Divide
Those who lack digital literacy are faced
with a disadvantage of not having the
ability to socially advance and
personally better themselves

Digital Inequality: “difference in access

to social, cultural and material resources
necessary to access, use, and interpret
digital information and technologies”
Different Forms of Capital
Economic capital- money needed to purchase and own the technology (the computer or WiFi)
Social capital- personal connections with those that act as a resource
Ex: your parents are close friends with the CEO of Pepsi, in return, you have a higher chance of
getting a job at Pepsi
Cultural capital- knowledge, tastes, and practices that presents your social class to others
Habitus- extent to which one is socialized

• Changes the way one views the world as well as the online activities they partake in
Ex: one may use the Internet to check the Stock Market or read the NY Times daily, whereas
one may just use the Internet to direct message their friends for fun
Social Class
Social Class: combination of education,
income, and prestige of one’s
occupation that places one in a
hierarchal society in relation to others 

Most dependent on cultural capital

Socioeconomics
Higher
• Internet is for learning and
meeting new people
• Has great access to technology
• CAN produce content
Lower
• Internet is for talking to existing
relationships and completing
basic tasks
• Has limited access to technology
• Don’t normally produce content
Social Reproduction
• The idea that past or present inequalities will reinforce structures of inequality in the
future (116)

• Homophily: tendency for people to associate with those like them

Example: students tend to befriend and hangout with those of same race
Example: in 2010, study found that wealthier and higher educated individuals used
Facebook, whereas the poorer, with only a high school education used MySpace
Example: LinkedIn vs. Indeed

Do we see this idea of self-segregation within the Bryant community? If so,

what are some examples?
 Rural:
•  Disadvantage to technology -
Different Regions:  hardware and Internet access
were slow to reach rural
communities 
• Suffer more often from social
isolation 
• Had fewer friends in social
network
• Women are more likely to be
on social networking sites but
have higher privacy settings
than others.

Urban:
• Men are more likely to
"Because social media allows us to connect with people
be on social networking sites
far away, it offers opportunities to find people like us for
support, comfort, and advice about being different."
(Humphreys, 123)
Digital Divide and Covid-19

Internet service has slowed since the

start of the pandemic as founded by
M-lab
62% of counties across the US did not
have the government’s minimum
download speed for broadband
internet
The Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) says 21 million
Americans lack high-speed internet
access
Case 14: “Bridging the Digital Divide to Stay in Touch with Grandparents”
Questions
What would you say the pros and cons were of Abby’s grandparents learning to use this
technology?

Should new technology be forced upon people of older generations?

 Top posts, hashtags and
gender display on Instagram
• Everyone’s welcome but only if you
follow the rules
• Posts are replicas of top posts,
limited variety
• Instagram is built around attention
and visibility
• “Community as commodity”

How important is being accepted on

social media platforms? Important
enough to only show the best sides of
your personality?
Social Identity
The spatial self: a variety of instances (both
online and offline) where individuals document,
archive, and display their experience and/or
mobility within space and place in order to
represent or perform aspects of their identity to
others

• The spatial self is becoming a prominent

part of our daily life
• This practice of self-presentation on social
networks results in a curated and idealized
version of who individual users are based
on physical place 
• These performances usually occur along
location based social media 
“There are privacy concerns that need to be considered when
gathering user-generated geolocated data...and the isolation
and re-circulation of these digital productions was not
consented to by participants.”  (Schwartz and Halegoua, 1657)

• Photographic social networks – Users

produce geocoded photos that represent
images of specific locations and the events
that take place within them.
• Mixed-use social networks – Employ a
variety of ways to communicate including
videos, texts, links, and graphics as well as
location announcement for members to
connect.
• Location-based social media - Allows users
to check into the places they go and instantly
share that information with friends online.
The “Ideal” Influencer
• American/European beauty ideals
• White
• Almond eyes
• Heart-shaped face

• Brand bias
• Want a certain “look”
• Pay gap
• Exclude colored influencers
• Limited plus-size or disabled
peoples
Instagram VS Reality
How much does your online and offline self differ?
Works Cited
“Chapter 7: Social Media & Identity.” Social Media: Enduring Principles,
by Ashlee Humphreys, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 109–129. 

Holpuch, Amanda. “US's Digital Divide 'Is Going to Kill People' as Covid-
19 Exposes Inequalities.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13
Apr. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/coronavirus-covid-
19-exposes-cracks-us-digital-divide. 

Freethink. “The Digital Divide, Explained.” Online video clip. YouTube.

YouTube, 11 July 2020. Web. 28 September 2020.