Identitet, modernitet och Twitter
Hur sociala är egentligen sociala medier?
Social media on the internet allows both public and private actors to communicate with each other. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the relationship between the public and the private in social media on the internet, specifically with emphasis on the identities which are shaped in this relationship. The social media explored in this study is the micro blog Twitter. Data was collected from the pages of three public and private actors on Twitter, specifically with concern to their interaction with public and/or private actors. The data was analysed with support in sociological theories on modernity, identity, self-identity, socialisation and Erving Goffman's theories on everyday expression. The results show that expressions of public identities from public actors are interwoven with expressions of private identities in the interaction with private actors. One of the study's main findings is the individualisation of public actors on Twitter in the interaction with private actors. Sometimes, the authority is shifted from the public actors to the private actors, which support the theory of the individualisation of public actors on the micro blog Twitter.