Saudi women's identities on Facebook: Context collapse, judgement, and the imagined audience

Abstract

As social networking sites present opportunities to construct identities, they also present challenges. This article explores women's experiences with Facebook in the Saudi context by looking at how their self-presentation strategies and audience management might constitute a unique use of Facebook. The study utilises a mix of qualitative methods of research and extends Goffman's dramaturgical approach to consider more complex settings wherein the self is monitored and regulated, contexts “collapse,” the self is judged, and judgement by others is imagined. The findings reveal that different aspects of women's identities are constructed, gendered, and tightly managed as they address multiple audiences, with networks being formed in a way that has relatively narrowly defined boundaries.