Facebook Community is Judgmental: A Symbolic Interaction Perspective on Context Collapse and Identity Construction of Youth on Social Networking Sites

Abstract

Despite the versatility and longevity of Facebook as a Social Networking Site (SNS) in comparison to Instagram, the Daily Active Users count and the average time spent per day have dropped significantly during the recent past. The observed drop in the popularity of Facebook is confounding from a marketing perspective since Facebook appears to provide more benefits and values than Instagram. Hence, using symbolic interaction as a theoretical lens, in this paper we engage in a discussion on how identity construction complexities on SNSs with greater context collapse, such as Facebook, could contribute to users’ preference for SNSs having smaller communities with less context collapse, such as Instagram. A qualitative study was carried out with the participation of 14 informants in the age group between 18-34 years. The data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that the greater context collapse on Facebook has created discomfort for youth in constructing identities. Theoretically, this explains how the unclear, and at times, conflicting ‘universes of discourse’ operating on Facebook impose complexities to navigating user behaviour. Further, the lesser context collapse on Instagram which provides a more cohesive ‘universe of discourse’ allows the youth to construct a more expansive identity that conforms to community norms. This study theoretically accentuates the repercussions of developing and managing undifferentiated SNSs catering to the mass market, which makes it difficult for users to navigate the expectations of diverse audiences.