Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
KiS baner

Vol. 65 No. 4 (2021)

Articles and essays

Vanishing Traces: Evolution of Autobiographical Practices on the Internet

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35757/KiS.2021.65.4.5
Submitted: March 25, 2022
Published: December 29, 2021

Abstract

This article analyses one of the many directions of change in online autobiographical practices, i.e. the decrease in the importance of autobiographical content preservation and archiving with the simultaneous increased popularity of ephemeral content, e.g. that which is automatically deleted after a single viewing. This trend in autobiographical digital practices is illustrated with significant examples of new media formats such as homepages, blogs as well as entries on the social media platform Facebook and the application Snapchat. The article enumerates stages of change with reference to various communication tools, but it should be noted that the evolutionary process is continuous and its stages overlap. The indicated direction of change in online autobiographical practices, determined by the developmental realities of new media, is analysed in connection with processual media theory, as well as the concept of an ephemeral turn in a digital environment.

References

  1. Attrill Alison, 2015, The Manipulation of Online Self-Presentation. Create, Edit, Re-edit and Present, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
  2. Benstock Shari, 1999, The Female Self-Engendered: Autobiographical Writing and Theories of Selfhood, w: Martine Watson Brownley & Allison B. Kimmich (eds.), Women and Autobiography, Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, pp. 3–13.
  3. Billings Andrew C., Qiao Fei, Conlin Lindsey, Nie Tie, 2017, Permanently Desiring the Temporary? Snapchat, Social Media, and the Shifting Motivations of Sports Fans, “Communication & Sport”, 5(1), pp. 10–26.
  4. Bryant Erin M., Marmo Jennifer, 2012, The Rules of Facebook Friendship, “Journal of Social and Personal Relationships”, 29(8), pp. 1013–1035.
  5. Carroll Traci, 1996, Want Ads: Reading the Personals, in: Sidonie Smith, Julia Watson (eds.), Getting a Life: Everyday Uses of Autobiography, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis–London, pp. 156–173.
  6. Case Patricia Ann, 1977, How to Write Your Autobiography: Preserving Your Family Heritage, Woodbridge Press Publishing, Santa Barbara.
  7. Cavalcanti Luiz Henrique, Pinto Alita, Brubaker Jed, Dombrowski Lynn, 2017, Media, Meaning, and Context Loss in Ephemeral Communication Platforms: A Qualitative Investigation of Snapchat, “Association for Computing Machinery” February 25 – March 1, pp. 1934–1945.
  8. Chambers Deborah, 2019, Emerging Temporalities in the Multiscreen Home, “Media, Culture & Society”, 1, pp. 1–17.
  9. Chandler Daniel, Dilwyn Roberts-Young, 1998, Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web (http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/webident.html [01.09.2021]).
  10. Cheung Chi Wai, 2000, A Home on the Web: Presentations of Self in Personal Homepages, in: David Gauntlett (ed.), Web Studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age, Arnold, London, pp. 43–51.
  11. Doctorow Cory (et al.), 2002, Essential Blogging: Selecting and Using Weblog Tools, O’Reilly, Beijing (et al.).
  12. Elwood Sarah, Mitchell Katharyne, 2015, Technology, Memory, and Collective Knowing, “Cultural Geographies”, 22(1), pp. 147–154.
  13. Grinberg Nir, Kalyanaraman Shankar, Adamic Lada A., Naaman Mor, 2017, Understanding Feedback Expectations on Facebook, “Association for Computing Machinery”, 1, pp. 726–739.
  14. Haber Benjamin, 2019, The Digital Ephemeral Turn: Queer Theory, Privacy, and the Temporality of Risk, “Media, Culture & Society”, 41(8), pp. 1069–1087.
  15. Heddon Deirdre, Lavery Carl, Smith Phil, 2009, Walking, Writing and Performance, Intellect Books, Bristol.
  16. Hijmans Ellen, van Selm Martine, 2002, Between Altruism and Narcissm: an Action Theoretical Approach of Personal Homepages Devoted to Existential Meaning, “Communication & Medicine”, 27(1), pp. 103–125.
  17. Kaplan Danny, 2021, Public Intimacy in Social Media: The Mass Audience as a Third Party, “Media, Culture & Society”, 1, pp. 1–18.
  18. Kennedy Helen, 2006, Beyond Anonymity, or Future Directions for Internet Identity Research, “New Media & Society”, 8(6), pp. 859–876.
  19. Kitzmann Andreas, 2003, That Different Place: Documenting the Self Within Online Environments, “Biography”, 26(1), pp. 48–65.
  20. Köhl Margarita Marie, Götzenbrucker Gerit, 2014, Networked Technologies as Emotional Resources? Exploring Emerging Emotional Cultures on Social Network Sites Such as Facebook and Hi5: a Trans-Cultural Study, “Media, Culture & Society”, 36(4), pp. 508–525.
  21. Lash Scott, 2002, Critique of Information, SAGE, London–Thousand Oaks–New Delhi.
  22. Matheson Donald, Wahl-Jorgensen Karin, 2020, The Epistemology of Live Blogging, “New Media & Society”, 22(2), pp. 300–316.
  23. McRoberts Sarah, Ma Haiwei, Hall Andrew, Yarosh Svetlana, 2017, Share First, Save Later: Performance of Self through Snapchat Stories, “Association for Computing Machinery”, May, pp. 6902–6911.
  24. Michelson Elana, 2011, Autobiography and Selfhood in the Practice of Adult Learning, “Adult Education Quarterly”, 61(1), pp. 3–21.
  25. Miller Nod, Morgan David, 1993, Called to Account: The CV as an Autobiographical Practice, “Sociology”, 27(1), pp. 133–143.
  26. O’Reilly Tim, 2005, What Is Web 2.0. Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software (https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html [01.09.2021]).
  27. Perreault Jeanne, Kadar Marlene, 2005, Introduction: Tracing the Autobiographical: Unlikely
  28. Documents, Unexpected Places, in: Marlene Kadar, Linda Warley, Jeanne Perreault & Susanna Egan (eds.), Tracing the Autobiographical, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, pp. 1–8.
  29. Pink Sarah, Mackley Kerstin Leder, 2013, Saturated and Situated: Expanding the Meaning of Media in the Routines of Everyday Life, “Media, Culture & Society”, 35(6), pp. 677–691. Poletti Anna, Rak Julie (eds.), 2014, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Madison Press, Madison.
  30. Rodríguez Karlie, 2016, SnapCHAT: The Genre of the Vanishing Memoir (http://isuwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Rodri%CC%81guez-Karlie-GWRJ7.1.pdf [01.09.2021]). Rossiter Ned, 2003, Processual Media Theory, “Symplokē”, 11(1–2), pp. 104–131.
  31. Sandberg Marianne, 2003, Themes in Personal Homepages. A Systemic Functional Approach to Analyzing Texts in Personal Homepages by Ph.D. Students (https://extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/closed/2003/005/sandberg2003005-paper.html [01.09.2021]).
  32. Schmitt Kelly L., Shoshana Dayanim, Stacey Matthias, 2008, Personal Homepage Construction as an Expression of Social Development, “Developmental Psychology”, 44(2), pp. 496–506.
  33. Siles Ignacio, 2011, The Rise of Blogging: Articulation as a Dynamic of Technological Stabilization, “New Media & Society”, 14(5), pp. 781–797.
  34. Tirosh Noam, 2017, Reconsidering the ‘Right to be Forgotten’—Memory Rights and the Right to Memory in the New Media Era, “Media, Culture & Society”, 39(5), pp. 644–660.
  35. Van Dijck José, 2013, ‘You Have One Identity’: Performing the Self on Facebook and LinkedIn, “Media, Culture & Society”, 35(2), pp. 199–215.
  36. Van Es Karin, 2017, Liveness Redux: On Media and Their Claim to Be Live, “Media, Culture & Society”, 39(8), pp. 1245–1256.
  37. Walker Jill, 2005, Blog (Weblog), in: David Herman, Manfred Jahn & Marie-Laure Ryan (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, Routledge, London–New York, p. 45.
  38. Wallace Patricia, 1999, The Psychology of the Internet, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  39. Wang Lingzhen, 2004, Personal Matters: Women’s Autobiographical Practice in Twentieth-Century China, Stanford University Press, Stanford.
  40. Warschauer Mark, Grimes Douglas, 2007, Audience, Authorship, and Artifact: The Emergent Semiotics of Web 2.0, “Annual Review of Applied Linguistics”, 27, pp. 1–23.
  41. Wynn Eleanor, Katz James E., 1997, Hyperbole Over Cyberspace: Self-Presentation and Social Boundaries in Internet Home Pages and Discourse, “The Information Society”, 13(4), pp. 297–327.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Similar Articles

<< < 4 5 6 7 8 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.