How Social Media Shapes Identity | Ulrike Schultze | TEDxSMU

With the proliferation of social media, we are increasingly engaged in identity work, that is, the forming, repairing, maintaining and revising our sense of self-worth and personal significance. The key question that this talk will seek to answer is "how are social media shaping our identities, that is, who we are and who we can become?" I will draw on insights from my research into identity work in the social virtual world Second Life to answer this question.

Ulrike Schultze is Associate Professor in Information Technology and Operations Management at Southern Methodist University. Her research explores the impact of information technology on work practices. She has studied the work practice implications of knowledge management technology and of Internet-based self-service technology. Most recently, she has been focusing on the implications of social media technologies, specifically the virtual world Second Life, for identity work. Dr. Schultze frequently relies on multi-method research designs, which include ethnographic observations, interviews and surveys.
During her tenure at SMU, Dr. Schultze has taught a variety of classes in the BBA, MBA, MSA and MSBA programs. Dr. Schultze holds a Bachelors’ and Masters’ degree in Information Systems from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She earned her PhD in Management, with a concentration in Information Systems, from Case Western Reserve University.

[boodanoo]

I appreciate her use and explanation of 'discourse' in this talk.

[babybaby]

Wow she is such an amazing professor that I can see how popular she is In her university and in classroom.

[kjellfrode]

It's been 31 days since I deleted my Facebook account.Something I do not regret.

[winterlou]

I deleted my fbk Apps just last month, july 1, cause I feel like everyone in social media is competing but they just don't realize that. It makes me stress because most of what I've seen is a face, a food, their new clothing, new bags, their achievements, their fbk become their I deleted it and I have no plan to get back

[rifana.]

to much lie in social media can damaging your real identity and damaging you

[seeyourway-joshcaz]

Bjork, this lady reminds me of Bjork....anywaaayyyy this is some very insightful information....for us who are not aware how our environemt...every single thing we interact with shapes our behaviour and personality.

[CayoCarig]

I think I don't know people who plays or played second life and if they're use it nowadays, but the game itself it's a giant metaphor for what thing have turned into today in the way of how we communicate trough social media

[steelwind]

Did she put down world of warcraft as a social media account

[pretty]

Thank you for your information; it's very helpful in this era

[RomaRybakov]

"Anything from pale to... uhm to-to-to a very dark shade of brown"
👨🏿‍🦲

[alissaride]

I am currently having an identity crisis because of social media

[andreasmuller]

I post on youtube under my real name nowadays exactly because I don't want to be someone else online than I am in real life. When I want to be someone else for a while I have books and video games. I think this mixing reality and fiction with online pseudonyms you can hide behind is generally not a good thing because, well, it leads to the level of discourse we have today. But that's only my oppinion based on my very limited perceptions of social media.


From a scientific perspective her research is very flawed. She has not taken a representative sample of the group she wants to study (social media users) but a, and she admits this herself, specialized group using an extreme form of the medium she is trying to study. I think this makes her results not transferable to social media in general. You can not take a special subgroup and then do some mental gymnastics to pretend it's really representative when it's really not. Also, I'm curious how you study what identity someone forms by just looking at their behavior from the outside. Or did they ask the players in Second Life if they themselves really formed the identities they allegedly formed? I think how social media shapes identity is one of those things which can not be studied scientifically in any meaningful way because a) the group you want to study is too large and b) the medium you're studying is too diverse and c) the medium evolves very fast, which makes the long-term validity of any result questionable.Maybe you could study it for one particular medium, like Twitter or Facebook, but even then you run into problems a) and c).


I think this is a flaw of our scientific systems, that we rather say "well let's study it in the ways we can study it even though it's not really valid methodology" instead of admitting that some things are too complex to be studied scientifically if you want scientifically valid results. Which doesn't mean anecdotal evidence is worthless, but then call it what it is. Don't call it science.

[heathenbreathinfire]

I've stepped away from Social Media mostly excepting Youtube, and that is one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. Failbook was such a huge emotional energy drain that I never realized how much I felt like half a person 'til I stepped away, for example. I remember that in the 90's and 2000's, sites that had bulletin boards, chat programs like MIRC to a lesser extent or particularly forums, had intense, developing, continuous extended conversations that could last years, or perhaps a decade! These would develop on the nuance of a certain topic or topics, and generally involve a very high level of intellectual development and intense discourse or debate, regardless of the topic. Yes, there were awful trolls or those times of being too emotionally charged that a conversation would turn "toxic" and start a flame war, but really, it wasn't all that commonplace as compared to today, where nearly any site for Social Media specifically, like Failbook for example, or containing such a function like the aforementioned forums, would inevitably be entirely taken over in it's leadership by Social Justice Warriors and a neonazi leftist ideology, where even freedom of thought or expression is no longer tolerated whatsoever! We can see the most prime examples of this in the new attempt to push a 3 year jail sentence for "Offensive Content" being posted on Social Media by both Australia and New Zealand, or in the SJW's taking ownership over even Linux and many other things to ruin and defile them despite never having any real hand in being a creator or supporter of the platform in any way, on the false premise of assumed victimhood. Just look at how the SJW's killed the Boy Scouts!! This is beyond shameful, and until people wake up from becoming the shambling, zombie hordes they are now, we are effectively doomed...

[eanayac]

Very nice, but I think it could have been longer... There was a lot there to digest...

[abhasingh]

It's true social media create anomie in identity, conflict between ME and I

[Seldanas]

The way she pronounced 'Neko' hurts my soul

[pranaysehgal]

co-constitutive entanglement of human agents and technology

[ukefreak]

Take a shot every time she says "um" and "essentially" lmao

[kushsachdeva]

from the bottom of my heart idfc get a real job nga

[MrJoebrada]

WE DO NOT COMPLY !! WE LOVE FREEDOM. NOT ENSLAVEMENT !!!! if you accept tech ID, then you given % of your privileged to poor countries that corporations in that country to become more POWERFUL and bring themselves in your turf How would you feel that you are not chipped and you partner is. THEY ALREADY KNOW YOUR HABITS WHEN YOU ARE AROUND YOUR PARTNER. You say I can opt out with a phone, but not with a chip.... well as long as someone near you has a chip on, your phone can send a RFID signal back to the chip and back... BS ...DO NOT LET THIS VAMPIRES DO IT TO YOU