Papers by Lesleyanne Drake
Increasingly in today’s society, online communities are sites of social and cultural interchange ... more Increasingly in today’s society, online communities are sites of social and cultural interchange where identity is shaped and negotiated. My research examines a website for artists and art lovers in order to determine how participation in this online community affects its users’ identity. Due to the highly personal nature of creating and viewing artwork, I predicted that art would be the primary form of identity expression on the website. I conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with members of the website, focusing on five themes related to identity. My findings confirmed my hypothesis and revealed that users engage in a process of identity refocusing which enables them to maximize selected aspects of identity while minimizing others. This insight provides a more nuanced view of social interaction in online communities and contributes to a broader understanding of how identity is performed and constructed in cyberspace.
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Papers by Lesleyanne Drake