Identity Fluidity | Concepts

It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

danah boyd uses more than a decade of fieldwork and interviews to show that teenagers’ use of social media is nuanced and purposeful, shaped by social needs for identity, community, privacy, and expression. She argues that many adult fears — about addiction, privacy loss, danger, and bullying — are exaggerated or misunderstood and that teens’ networked lives reflect adaptive social behavior, not pathology.

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Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community

Judith Donath analyzes how identity is constructed and performed in online spaces, where cues from physical presence are absent and deception can be easier. She explains that virtual communities create unique challenges for trust, reputation, and authenticity due to the flexibility and opacity of identity online.

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Extended Self in a Digital World

This conceptual article revisits the extended self—a foundational idea in consumer research that possessions become part of one’s identity—and adapts

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Curation: A Theoretical Treatment

Davis proposes a theoretical framework for digital curation, arguing that it is a central mechanism of sociality in the information‑rich online environment. She distinguishes between productive curation (selecting and sharing content) and consumptive curation (sorting and attending to information), showing how these practices are shaped by social networks and technological design.

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Triangulating the Self: Identity Processes in a Connected Era

Davis examines how individuals negotiate identity in a networked era marked by digital social technologies, highlighting the challenge of maintaining a coherent balance between idealized and authentic self‑presentations. She identifies conditions such as the fluidity between digital and physical contexts, expectations of accuracy, and overlapping social networks that shape contemporary identity processes.

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