Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1-1-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Philosophy

First Advisor

Donovan Wishon

Second Advisor

Deborah Mower

Third Advisor

Robert Barnard

School

University of Mississippi

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

The internet age has alloindividuals a degree of self-expression that is more expansive than any other period in history. Through the emergence of social networking sites (henceforth SNS), individuals can tell their stories to their entire social network with unparalleled ease. It is difficult to overstate how far-reaching the implications of this form of widespread communication are with respect to interpersonal communication. Despite this, little work has been done considering how we should think about self-presentation on SNS. The goal of this paper is two-fold: (1) I will defend the position that our narrative identities are constituted by a set of, so called, essential features. (2) I will argue that SNS profiles ought to be understood as expressions of an individual’s narrative identity in terms of these essential features. If I am correct, then there are implications both for our understanding of identity and for researchers who employ information from SNS.

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