Facebook and Identity

In the past, people normally wrote dairies privately in a notebook using pen. They are the written records for them to record their own personal feelings for self-memory and self-reflection. However, writing dairy is now no longer a personal event due to the technological advancement of electronic dairy services—facebook, twitter and blogs, it is now a published stories book for creating an ideal identity using languages and graphics; it is also a tool to socialize and ratify in-group identities.

My Facebook

The above facebook profile page is mine and I will use it as an example to illustrate how languages and graphics can create self unique and in-group identities, some ideologies will also be revealed and explained using the new media.


The language people used shows their identity. Regard to the facebook cover page, there is a sentence written near my name, ‘i gonna Australia asap!! lol, btw, 520, Australia!!’ This is a Netspeak which may only be understood by those teenagers who likes chatting on the computer or mobile. The sentence actually means ‘I go to Australia as soon as possible!! (laugh out loud), by the way, I love you, Australia!!’ Teenagers like the computer mediated language as they think it represents the identity of Generation Y and Z because it is their unique language. People who are not belonging to their group may not understand the languages. It is the reason why their parents do not understand the sentence as they are not familiar with the computer mediated language.

The parts of ‘information’ and ‘photos’ in profile page allow users to type their current location, relationship, birthday, educational background, interests and contact information. Users also can upload photos to show their current lives. Definitively, it is not a section simply for providing personal information; it is a part for creating self unique and in-group identities. The birthday and educational background indicate your generation as a teenagers or young adult. Besides, people draw inferences on a person quickly based on photos as some of the photos reflect your personalities which you want to show explicitly. For example, people think a person is outgoing, active, enthusiastic and independent if he/she likes travelling and organizing activities. A person is quite gentle and quiet if he/she likes reading or drawing.