ReexamDigitalIdentities - Yudha Saputra

Re-Exam Digital IdentitiesYudha Saputra201402191

Fragmented self in multiple social media account:A journey to define what is social media frommuslim scholar perspective.

Around 1400 years ago (621), the fundamental Islamic leader went for a journey fromMasjidil haram (Saudi Arabia) to Masjidil Aqsa (Palestine) right now. Then he ascendedto heaven and spoke with god. After thousand years, the journey has not over. Yet it isexpanded from east to the west by his followers whom continue which we believe asmessage from god. Now I am sitting face to face to my computer and there issophisticated technological system namely internet connection, server, browser, socialmedia, language programming and many more. It is complicated and beyond what hethought back 1400 years ago. Now in the 21th century as muslim scholar, my journeybegin in the social media platforms. Not to preach and give speech about the messagesabout Islam certainly but to describe what kind of control and freedom dominantlyleverage muslim scholar behaviour and act in social media world as space of selfexpression. This paper is an extension of auto etnography project which conducted by meabout media tracking and dieting. The result is I am shifting and performing from oneplatform to another. It cannot be generalised and represented that all muslim scholarshave a similar route like mine because this is my story, my journey, and my space. Enjoy!Keywordsactor network theory; control and freedom; identity; public and private space; audiences

***THE STORY BEGIN ...I realize that I do not use different platforms for different purpose only but also I behavedifferently on every platform. I started to wonder when and why it started. The way Icreate identities in every social media platforms with the profile describing, photos, andcontents are not entirely the same. Despite I love to play with many roles in social medialike roger in American Dad who have more than thousand personas in every scene, thereare sense of invisible and visible surveillance who witness me everyday, every time, andeverywhere. Markham wrote individual is impacted by ever-increasing connection withcomputers, technologies, and information (Markham 2013) which make the generationC is has different experiences from the previous generation how they think and act aboutthe world. More specifically about how they articulate identity in social and culturalcontext in digital era.


I begin to conceptualise from control and freedom relate to actor network theory as bigumbrella to explain my his(story) and it is divided into four actors (Islamic values set,mom, audiences (friends or followers), technological affordances) which shape thenetwork in social media. All of them are related each other, and I can say, they areoverlapping but somehow there must be a clear border among them because differentcontrol and freedom I should take for granted. All the actors leads me how I behave andcreates profile in every social media platforms. Although the whole story is about myjourney, but at the end, I describe social media as personal space ofself-CONTROL-expression. As Chun pointed out that all electronic interactionsundermine the control of users by constantly sending involuntary representations(Chun 2006). It can be from the the socio technical system which controlled by bigbrother from IP address, personal identity information, daily pattern in social media use.Borrowing the term Algorithmic self which described as through a complex and largelyinvisible interaction with the algorithms that mediated the interface (Markham 2013).

***First actor: Islamic valuesBlackwell also said the self is entirely social product, he presents a dualistic image of selfwhen he argues that there is an unsocialized component to the self that drives theindividual into and out of social intercourse and sometimes impels the individual tobehave in ways out of keeping with social norms. (Blackwell 1997). There is set of ruleswhich constrain me to speak up my mind freely, mom also influence by this rulesbecause she devotes herself so much to our god and He (I use apostrophe because inIslam we are not define god as a male or a female) represents in the world by Koran andHadith some people might say prophetic traditions.Never insulting or cursing someone else, both in the real life and in thedigital world. Behind or in front of him/her someone else.This term is one of many values which taught by Muhammad (peace be upon him) whensomeone say harsh words about myself. Well as a human being I also have the right toexpress myself however I have to control myself to what I write on wall, I tweet, photos Iupload to Instagram, and etc. Then the actor is related to my mom, a human figurewhom I respect the most after prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). She saidpatience can beat hate. She just wants to apply Islamic values every aspect of her life boththe real and digital world.


Later on in the afternoon she sent me a private message on Twitter, she wrote that Imust have more patience to face out any grudge comment to myself and better tobeware of what I wrote because I already knew the Islamic values which come fromour prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Instead of cursing someone on Twitter,better for me to send him bless for his good life. She asked me to delete my tweet. I couldnot fully understand mom because of this and I avoided arguing about who is right andwho is wrong, even though I was not fully accepted about it, then I erased my tweet.

I do not have any choice except to honor her and I do not want to be someone who will beburnt in hell fire because abandoning and having a quarrel with mother as a womanwho has highest position among every women in the world based on the Islamicvalue. None can replace her. It never gonna happen. Unconsciously I have been appliedIslamic values from our god to our prophet then to our mom then it is internalise inmyself.

Second actor: MomI realised when my mom got on Facebook, I began to use them more systematically andstrategically than I did before. I am looking at my online notes, which I performedslightly different persona I have. In my journal, I wish to begin when doing that andwhen my mother got on Facebook and told story. She did not post but she sent mepersonal message policing my behavior. Instantly revert back to my 14 years self whowould not mind to please my mother and I realized book is not gonna be the place that Icould express all the part of my personalities. Maybe that work out the best becauseFacebook become professional zone. Maybe she was right, but nonetheless I invest tocontain multitude and have my personality express so I decided to the other platformand I want to be a different people in different platforms.Once upon a time, I was bashing on ones page on Facebook because they insulted mygroup idol (I just wonder if their page still exist). I admitted my words are harsh andruthless to someone in that page or to group either. Suddenly my mobile ringing andthat was my mom. She said that I have to look out on my mouth and behave like anideal grown man. Because someone sent her a message through facebook reported meas a guilty that I writing inappropriate comments on Facebook.Papacharissi narrowing idea of self nowadays is expressed a fluid abstraction(Papacharissi 2011). It can be whatever self can possible be in social network. Momcreate identity as a police to monitor and control like panopticon not only me but also mycousin in Social media. The story goes when I move to twitter.Mom sent a private message on Twitter (again?) because of my tweet sort of resentfulto someone. Well I guess I wrote a tweet about someone who said my outlook


appearance looks like terrorist with beard hanging down on my chin and I alwayswear pants or trousers above ankle. That was horrible!See! She is still the same figure, attitude, control, and action. The dissimilar thing is onlythe space. Latour in his work of Actor Network Theory indicates in any givenrelationship, they are human actor and they are non human actor and they relate to oneand another and put into motion effects.I wish I can get my mom out the conversation button, but the button does not exist. Asresult, my relationship with my mom had to go in this certain way. I had to change mybehavior, now there is additional network actor called this button. If I wish I couldactivate this button to stop her from sing what I say, would allow me to do other things.Each one of them set series into it. It is hard to talk about those interaction withoutbringing in these other action because completely controlling it.

Actor three: AudiencesI duplicate myself into several individuals in very social media, Gergen mentioned thisphenomena as self-multiplication (Gergen, 1991). Because I realize there is a police whomonitors, I also realize the differences of audience in every social media. It is impossibleto bitch something bad about Denmark for example. Despite, yes! It is developed countrywith high income standard, modern, and wealthy. But the bureaucracy system is stillunder developed. Comparing with Korea where I got my residence card permit within 30minutes, in here take more than 6 months with black mail the office in advance. I cannotdo that on Facebook because I have plenty Danes friends. Many if questions are flashingon my mind, what if my friend hated me, what if they had no respect on me, what if theyperceived me as an ungrateful person because I got scholarship from DanishGovernment but still I blame their bureaucracy system. Which in my culture it isconsider disrespectful.Facebook is for everyone who know me or at least we already had a face to facecommunication. They are friends from elementary school until graduate college. Theyare also friends from many organizations that I have been joined in different places andtime. They are also work partners from several projects that I have been done. I seldomaccepted friend request from the person who has never met before. Meanwhile twitter isfriend is only close friend, probably we have been hanging out several times and if theyfollow me I will follow back. But if they do not follow me I will never follow them. Bydoing this, that person trust you and willing to share the connection and gain access to


him/her space. If not, just waving my hand and say goodbye. I do not want to provide mypersonal space for you either.I started using twitter in the May 2009 when I was in Korea for student exchange, oneof my friend posting from facebook via twitter. At that time it was cool! A newplayground emerged and none knew (or perhaps only a few knew). Because I amconsider myself as a person who is stay updated with the new technology and noveltythen I signed up. I started talking about crap on my twitter, sometimes teased on somefriends who updated their twitter not hourly but secondly.

In Path only people who has already known me a lot, we have been friend in several yearsor I have been worked with him or her in a long time. Or simply someone who I want tobe their close friends and maintain our relationship. I might say friendship in Facebookis not based on quality but in Path is the reverse of it. Along with the idea of participantsmore frequently consider the implications of excluding or explicitly rejecting a person asopposed to the benefits of including them (Boyd, 2011).Audiences also have a great impact to join or participate in social media. They discovernew spaces which sophisticated and without doubt I joined them to visit the playground.When there is none there I felt alone and it is not common for me to talk to stranger insocial media platform. Along with the concept of participatory culture (Jenkin 2011)which social interaction and participation among audiences play the central role inshaping every social media platforms and audiences reciprocally give the meaning into it.When there is no interaction in social media, it means dead. Although more than 90%social media user is just doing lurking activity (wikipedia 2015) which mean lurking is anew way of participate in social media. But still social interaction particularly with closefriends play an important effect, except if someone do not have a friend in real world.I open my twitter and only a few people post some updates about their life today. Theyare same person who always update and share everything about their life. Evenunimportant thing, I guess everyone start to leave twitter and use other social media.But they do not want to miss updates on twitter. They are just linking between anemerging social media and an old social media.But I consider without friend my social media platform is just cemetery park, I onlycommunicate with strangers on my tumblr. Some friends in fact have a tumblr but theyare not avid as me. Playing with strangers is not as fun as playing with your friend. Idid not decide to shut down the tumblr, I keep update with third party applicationwhich linked to tumblr like flipboard, social scope, Instagram, and Path.

Actor four: Technological affordancesAs I mentioned before about the audiences who affect me to control what I write andpost on social media platforms, in fact I can post it either on my mother tongue or use


certain code. But again, Facebook has translation feature which can translate my wordsand about the code, not every audiences can understand utterly about what I postliterally. It mean my message is not conveyed correctly to the audiences. Rettberg glossesFoucaults idea in technologies of self. He said that technologies of the self permitindividuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number ofoperation on their bodies and souls, conduct, and way of being, so as to transformthemselves in order to attain certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, orimmortality (Rettberg 2014).Because of technological affordances, mom could sign up for Facebook account by herself.Another person had to help her to solve this technological affordances. I assume mom isquite being literacy in current technology such as computer and internet but not in socialmedia. She has an email account and as a matter of fact she works for the largesttelecommunication company in Indonesia therefore I doubt if she is not familiar withcurrent technology.Sometimes I tagged him on video or photo but she did not leave any comment. I realizeshe use Facebook as she want to, not as we want to. Yes! I want to make sort ofconversation on Facebook with her and other siblings but probably she is busy ormaybe she forgot the password. Yeah! several times she asked password to my littlesister. And sometimes my little sister was in her Facebook account to chat and replycomments. She only said, this is not mom, this is me. Hilarious. How come she appearon moms account, gladly she did not act bizarre on her account.Identities making and actingAll four actors lead to the how I am creating identities and behaving in each social mediaplatform. Gergen noted how my experiences in social media platforms through thesaturated self and multiphrenia (Gergen 1991). All of the experience in the virtualworld enrich me in the sense making process of multiple identities in social mediaplatforms. Although at the first place I used to think it is a normal as a generation C orthe other scholars might be pointed as generation flux to have multiple email account,multiple social media, multiple interaction with audiences, multiple view of each space,and the other multiple possibilities which seems for the previous generation as a strangeway to live until emerge the term YOLO (you only live online), well for me it is justdoing an adventure and playing with identities that I cannot do in real live because backto the control and freedom in the environment.Theoretically or many people think that me, myself, and I is the central of identitiesmaking in social media platforms. However Boyd pointed out that user or participantsdo not have complete control over their self representation (Boyd 2011). It means


participants create profile based on what they want to perceive from the audiences whocan gain access to the see the profile. Moreover, with whom participants willing to sharetheir profile with. Blackwell suggested that individuals are not able to choose freelyimages of self they would have others accept but rather are constrained to definethemselves in congruence with the statuses, roles, and relationships they are accorded bysocial order (Edgley, Lemert & Branaman, 1998).These are four different screen shots from my profiles and recent updates in socialmedia.

Screencaps from facebook (profile page and wall from the left to right)

I created profile on facebook to show as a normal person as I can be even though I stillput my uniqueness. I am doing this because my audiences is diverse and come fromdifferent social and cultural backgrounds. I do not want they perceive me as a deviantjust because I want to be myself. Controlling my inner deviant self is better to avoid


stereotype and prejudice in the first impression. I perceive myself as a scholar, thinker,young professional, and religious man.Dominantly my updates is in Indonesian and English, I also have to control and filterinappropriate contents which can hurt friends on facebook. I avoid to post somethingrelated to religion friction, blasphemy toward someone, and etc. But sometimes I alsohave a right to stand for what I believe because my timeline full of media bigotry andblasphemy. To do so, I have freedom to control what I would like to do. As Burke wrotebehaviour is goal directed in the sense of their identity standard (Burke 2003).

Screencaps from twitter (profile page and updates from left to right)

Meanwhile on twitter I constructed myself as a spammer, complainer, drag queen, queer,religious man, sexy stripper, movie reviewer, and any magnitude possibilities. Wellperhaps twitter is my alter ego of facebook. Because the personas which appear is theopposite what I want to perceive on facebook. The limited audiences make me free toexpress what is on my mind (but for sure not entirely because of the actors, but mainlythe first two actors).


Basically it is more comfortable and enjoyable if I tweet in my first language. I use mysecond language if I could not find synonym in bahasa.

Screencaps from Tumblr (profile page and contents from left to right)

In Tumblr I only describe myself in a simple way, because it suppose to be my digitaldiary. The essential thing is in the content not in the profile. Although it is my digitaldiary, still I manage the privacy, access, and visibility. Not all of my mind thrown it inhere. Both in Tumblr and Path audiences can think as they like as I want to be in herebase on the contents, it is not consistent because I posted something emotionally drivencomment.


Screencaps from Path (profile page and moments from left to right)

There is no profile describing feature on path, profile and background picture andcontents is central of my identities.If I put in one metaphor, Facebook is a mall, Twitter is my backyard and Path ismy bedroom, Tumblr is my diary. In a mall people coming and going to shop atthe department store, buying groceries at the supermarket, hanging out with somefriends at the cafe, making a photo at the photobox corner, working at the accessorisestore, and many things people can do on facebook. Meanwhile backyard is a place whenpeople can play with dogs, do aerobic or yoga and plant flower, but the place is moreprivate and only limited people can access the backyard depend on who the owner is.Bedroom is very private area, no one can enter carelessly otherwise she or he will bekicked out and not to be allowed to enter forever. Diary is a space designed for only mecan see and know about what I write. No one even parents do not know what story that Iwrote in there. Because I am not good at keeping things, sometimes it is accidentally read


by anyone who found it. In fact that is not entire story of my life, just a piece of puzzlewhich I create to build a image what I want to be.I must admit as a human who need sort of motivation, tumblr is place where I cancompile great quotes and I read back and forth. The most favorite quote on tumblr andI always remember until today even I wrote two or three years ago,One day, everybody shall realize that the only motivator they need is the man in themirrorI also put the this emoji :) in the end of quote

The similarities among four social media platforms which I describe before, still (with bigsigh) there is control from the four actors. Some of them is visible in my contents andprofiles (if you can see, I never put my a whole face photo in every social media because itis against the concept in Islam of lower you gaze. My photo either without face, masked,or only the body not the face) but plenty of them are invisible or still on my mind.Rettberg describe Foucaouls view about technology of power which determine theconduct of individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination (Rettberg 2014) .There is a feel of something or someone keep surveillancing me whatever I do on myspace. For example, I always think; Is it appropriate to post this contents? What do they think of me if I post contents like this? Am I get a punishment from god if I post this? Is it insulting audiences if I post like this?

Space of self-CONTROL-expressionTurkle describes about Virtual Personae, in relation of social media has effect to howthey are perform in every platform. She said the creation and projection of constructedpersonae into virtual space(Turkle 1999). Each of spaces is not physical but thetechnological one and technology creates the opportunity and it also limit me in someway for instance had my mom joined facebook three years ago at the time there is no wayto filter people out of your past had she joined two months ago I might have verydifferent relationship to facebook on the other hand I might not because it have to bestudent there because sometimes there is still capacity sometimes witnessing things thatyou do not want to be spread to another section in which in twitter I feel having very kindof specific handling and nobody really had interest in me. It is even more the case on thepath that people that I know in the short time. I would not even add anybody who Ididn't know.


Then she decided to make Facebook account. I didnt remember who and how shemake her account, I guess my sister was helped her. I am not sure if my mom openedthe site and sign up for facebook.

If some scholar think that the control is done by advertiser company or governmentssurveillance to civil, based on micro research in my case, control came from fourdifferent actors. Related to personal identity, I could say, tracking identity fromgovernment is less scarier than tracking identity from my god which lead me have badrecord of my life and I will be damned in judgement day if I am not behaved properly.Some people might laugh at me, but in my conception god also exist in virtual world.Inhabit Audiences also have an impact to whom I want to share my updates. Because inFacebook, the audiences are more complicated from different background and cultureand across nations so I have to pay attention carefully to put an update in order torespect other people believe and view. While in twitter and other social media platformbecause it is mainly I use for friend who know me for several years so I am more open tospeak my opinion addressing a topic or issue.

***Well this is not the end of my story since I am still continuously using social media tointeract with people, develop myself, understand the space where I am involved and livein, or any possible activities in the future. It is going to be an auto biography if I writeeverything on paper. The way I have constructed myself in every social media because ofsome power who control me to behave and act accordingly. Even though they do notstand or sit beside me, they are embedded in my body and mind. There is no way to runor escape because they will follow me and haunted me everywhere. The fragmented selfin social media just a social product of self-CONTROL-expression. I believe as a mankindI still have freedom. But my freedom under strong control of four actors that I describebefore. I have freedom but in certain way, is like a bird which has freedom to flyeverywhere, but it is impossible for them flying and and ascending to space. They will diebecause lack of oxygen or the other reasons. The four actors protect me especially thefirst two from unexpected dangerous and disaster in vast and infinite digital space for thepast, present, and future. Unfortunately, because of the limitations of the university rulein writing paper, I have to close the red curtain and end my story here. This story is notentirely represent me to understand my identities which lay in my mind and body. It isonly one fragmented story in particular time and space, then the journey never end untilI close my eyes and say goodbye to the world (at least my children and grand children


will read and understand what is the meaning being a muslim scholar in social mediaplatforms in 21th century).TO BE CONTINUE ...


ReferencesChun, W. (2006). Control and freedom: Power and paranoia in the age of fiber optics.Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Edgley, C., Lemert, C., & Branaman, A. (1998). The Goffman Reader. ContemporarySociology,27(3), 314. doi:10.2307/2655225Gergen, K. (1991). The saturated self. [New York]: Basic Books.Jenkins, H., & Ford, S. (2013). Spreadable media creating value and meaning in anetworked culture. New York: New York University Press.Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.Retrieved from http://dss-edit.com/plu/Latour_Reassembling.pdfMarkham, A.N. (2013). The Algorithmic Self: Layered Accounts of Life and Identity inthe 21st century. Selected Papers of Internet Research 14.0, Denver, USA.Papacharissi, Z. (2011). A networked self. New York: Routledge.Rettberg, J. (2014). Seeing ourselves through technology: How we use selfies, blogs andwearable devices to see and shape ourselves.Reynolds, L. (2003). Symbolic Interactionist: Theories of Identity. In Handbook ofsymbolic interactionism. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.Turkle, S. (1999). Cyberspace and Identity. Contemporary Sociology, 28(6), 643.doi:10.2307/2655534

1% rule (internet culture).n.d.in Wikipedia. Retrived March 23, 2014.

ReexamDigitalIdentities - Yudha Saputra

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