The Power of Self-Presentation

This book follows a Goffmanian approach to self-presentation to focus on the different strategies Spanish users employ to construct their digital identity in profiles, biographies, pictures, and statuses on platforms such WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. The author presents a functioning taxonomy of self-presentation strategies along the front-stage/back-stage continuum, including common strategies such as eudaimonic (or inspirational) messages and the use of humour. Special attention is paid to the effects of social variables such as the users' gender and age, and the perceived purposes of the different platforms (e.g. LinkedIn is often intended as a professional market for job hunting, whereas Facebook is rarely used in this context). The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Technologically Mediated Communication (traditionally known as Computer-Mediated Communication or CMC), media communication, internet pragmatics, digital discourse analysis, and related fields.

Carmen Maíz-Arévalo is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Linguistics at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. Her teaching includes Pragmatics, TEFL Methodology and Intercultural Studies, among other subjects. Her research fields of expertise are pragmatics, intercultural pragmatics and digital communication, with a special focus on (im)politeness, identity and self-presentation, and humour.