On-screen performance: self-presentation in a virtual forum

Abstract

The present article shows how individuals who interact in virtual environments make an enormous and complex effort to present themselves to others. To explain this activity, the notion of on-screen performance is used, defined as the set of declarations made in a virtual space with the possibility that they will be read, interpreted and/or replied to by other users. Through these sets of declarations users present themselves to others and create an image of themselves. To illustrate this concept, a forum of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya is analyzed. The analysis reveals that there is a wide variety of on-screen performance, that a single individual can develop changing and contradictory on-screen performances, and that the participants are involved in a never-ending process of permanent construction and reconstruction.