Instruction
In this activity, you will conduct a content analysis of Facebook or Instagram to determine how users engage in impression management on social media. If you do not use social media, your instructor will give you an alternative assignment.
Goffman formulated his theories of social interaction before the age of the Internet and social media. Social media sites like Facebook dramatically change the ways in which individuals are able to use impression management to ensure that people see them the way they want to be seen.
1. Select two people you follow on Instagram or are friends with on Facebook.
2. Analyze their profile photos by asking the following questions: What is the photo of? If it is a person, what is he or she doing? What is he or she wearing? If it is not a person, what is it? Where? What impression of your friend does the photo create?
3. Next, review the last ten posts of each person. What are the posts about?
4. Create categories to help you classify the posts (e.g., politics, everyday life, accomplishments, vacations or other outings). If any posts are of photos, analyze the photo in the way that you did the profile picture.
5. Once you have coded the status updates, write a one- to two-page sociological analysis of how each individual uses impression management on Facebook.