Hoaxes, hacking and humour: analysing impersonated identity on social network sites

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between identity, impersonation and authenticity in the context of two contrasting social network sites: Twitter and Facebook. I draw on sociolinguistic concepts of authenticity (Coupland, 2003) as a contextualized process in which members of the audience (addressees, auditors and overhearers (Bell, 1984)) draw on offline and online resources in order to detect impersonations with greater or lesser success. The effects of impersonation on the relational work (Locher, 2006) between the impersonated member and the different subgroups of the audience can vary. The difference in the types of relational work (fostering or reducing trust; building or undermining solidarity) are related to a number of factors, including the privacy settings which predominate in particular social network sites, the relationship between members (symmetrical or asymmetrical), and the communities of practice which form the basis of the two case studies (a group of academic professionals who use Twitter, and university students who use Facebook). The chapter begins with an overview of the relationship between identity and impersonation in computer-mediated contexts, then moves on to each case study in detail.