Self-image
online game. She was so enraged that she hacked
into his computer and ‘erased his carefully
constructed digital character’. She was arrested
on the charge of illegally using his password
and ID, not for virtual murder. See eisenberg’s
model of communication and identity,
2001; impression management; maslow’s
hierarchy of needs; self-concept; self-
monitoring; virtual reality; secondlife.
com.
Self-image See self-concept.
Self-monitoring Th is term refers to the degree
to which people are sensitive to, and able to
respond to, the demands of social situations with
regard to their own behaviour. Richard D. Gross
in Psychology: the Science of Mind and Behaviour
(Hodder Arnold, 2006) identifi es high and low
self-monitors. High self-monitors are motivated
to and able to assess the demands of diff erent
situations and adjust their self-presentation
and general behaviour accordingly.
Low self-monitors on the other hand tend
to behave in a similar fashion regardless of the
situation, and their behaviour is more likely to
be infl uenced by their own internal states. High
self-monitors appear much more able to conceal
their own moods, feelings and so on. Evidence
suggests that high self-monitors have better
social skills; for example, they can interpret non-
verbal communication more accurately than low
self-monitors.
Self-presentation Term used to describe the
way in which we behave and communicate in
diff ering social situations. It carries with it the
implication that to some degree, we consciously
present ourselves to others in any given situation.
The feedback we gain from self-presentation
plays a role in shaping and changing our self-
concept. Erving Goff man in Th e Presentation
of Self in Everyday Life (Anchor, 1959; Penguin,
1971) employs the dramaturgical perspective to
analyse social interaction. Goff man writes, ‘Life
itself is a dramatically enacted thing. All the
world is not, of course a stage, but the crucial
ways in which it is not are not easy to specify ...
In short, we all act better than we know how.’
Goff man puts forward several useful concepts
that have become infl uential in analysing self-
presentation. A key concept is that of persona.
Th e persona is the character we take on to play
a part in a particular social situation. Diff erent
situations will usually require us to play diff erent
parts and therefore to adopt diff erent personas.
So, for example, the persona an individual would
adopt when visiting a folk festival with friends
might be very diff erent from the persona he/sheto cope with the range of changes that an indi-
vidual is likely to encounter in such a society; the
change to self-identity that usually accompanies
a divorce being but one example. Giddens argues
that little help is available to individuals in
making such choices, although artefacts within
consumer culture may promise guidance –
self-help manuals, for example. Th e ability to
control self-presentation and in doing this
to actively construct and reconstruct bodily
appearance is seen by Giddens as essential to
maintaining a coherent self-identity.
Don Slater notes in Consumer Culture &
Modernity (Polity Press, 1997) that another infl u-
ence on late modernity – ‘commercialization’- has resulted in ‘a greater fl uidity in the use of
goods to construct identities and lifestyles’. It has
also resulted, arguably, in individuals perceiving
themselves, in part, as consumers; a perception
which would reinforce the notion that individu-
als must make choices.
Th ere are, of course, innumerable attempts to
appeal to aspects of the self in advertising and
marketing. Th e danger, warns Giddens, is that
‘the project of self becomes translated into one
of possession of desired goods and the pursuit of
artifi cially framed styles of life ... Th e consump-
tion of ever-novel goods becomes a substitute
for the genuine development of self ’.
Eric M. Eisenberg in ‘Building a mystery:
toward a new theory of communication and
identity’, Journal of Communication (2001)
echoes Giddens’s view that awareness of uncer-
tainty, whilst not unique to modern times, pres-
ents a signifi cant challenge to the narrative and
development of self-identity – especially to the
development of the fl exible self-identity needed
to effectively deal with such uncertainty. He
also, among others, argues that for those in the
Western world, the self is often viewed as resting
in the uniqueness of the individual; whereas in
the Eastern world it is more often seen as located
within and subject to the collective identity.
In the digital age it is now possible to also
construct a second-life identity and virtual
relationships. Th is raises the question of whether
the line between online and offl ine identities can
become blurred, and to what extent one can seep
into the other. Th ere is certainly some evidence
that people can become very engrossed in online
identities and relationships. David McNeill
writing in the Independent (‘Virtual killer faces
real jail after murder by mouse’, 24 October
- tells the story of a Japanese woman whose
second-life character was ‘divorced’ by the
second-life character of a man she ‘married’ in an