Fierce Resistance

Managing Multiple Identities In A Commercialized Internet Marketplace

Consumers vs. Corporations• Facebook, Google all pushing us toward a

unified online identity.• Who are the populations exhibiting “fierce

resistance” to this pressure while still having an online ID?– “Fierce” meaning more than just reluctance or

hesitation about FB policies– Not necessarily meaning “I have no FB account”

An example?• In August 2010 LiveJournal.com integrated

cross-posting from their site to Facebook and Twitter on both posts and comments.

• The News post garners over 9,000 comments, most of them expressing anger over the integration– The very first comment was a GreaseMonkey

script to block the integration buttons from view

“Don’t cross the streams”• Many of the complaints on the News post

specifically mentioned keeping LiveJournal separate from other sites:– “I come onto LJ when I want to avoid Facebook

and Twitter”– “A whole hell of a lot of us want to keep our

separate social networking SEPARATE.”

• LJ users may be a population exhibiting fierce resistance?

“Real” names factor?• LiveJournal was created in 1999 and has never

had a name policy. Pseudonyms are fairly common, especially among fans who use the site, as part of the customs of usage.

• The response to the Facebook integration suggests that separation from social networking sites may have particular value to LJ users, along with pseudonymity

Testing• H1: Most LiveJournal users have accounts for

activities they do not want connected with their legal names, such as fan activity or political activity.

• H2: Most LiveJournal users will not link their LiveJournal accounts to their Facebook accounts, if they have them.

How long have you used

LiveJournal usage• Asked what the primary reason for having a

LiveJournal account was:• 68% referenced “fandom” specifically• 19% referred to “friends” with no fandom

reference• Sample clearly weighted toward one type of LJ

user

Primary reasons for Facebook

• “To maintain contact with extended family, acquaintances, and because it makes my workplace happy.”

• “To keep in touch with real life contacts. My Facebook is a lot more sanitized than my LJ -- on Facebook I try to be mostly normal. Both are friendslocked.”

• “Dealing with family that are apparently incapable of email.”

Is your LJ account connected to FB?

Blue = No (98.8%)Orange = Yes (1.2%)

Why don’t you use the same name?

• “Livejournal is a less censored version of me. I want to be able to control who is aware of the connection between Meat Space me and my journal.”

• “Over my years online, I have learned the value of having a pseudonym. Being female, the additional privacy afforded me by this is both a luxury and an additional peace of mind. Plus, my fannish activities should not be tracked back to my professional life and cause me grief.”

• “Too many family members and super Christian friends that wouldn't like my fannish writing, esp. the incest porn.”

Do you cross-post?

Blue = No (92.7%)

Why don’t you cross post

• “Not interested in having a monolithic online identity across all social networking platforms”

• “‛Don't cross the streams, man...’ :-p Professional vs personal life”

• “Facebook is very much an outpost I use to interact with people who can only use FB, i.e. The Internet For Dummies.”

• “Potentially blowing secret identity: awkward.”

How did you feel about the integration between Facebook and Livejournal?

99% said they would never connect the two accounts

• “Because it's not safe - I'm gay, I write fiction about gay characters, people are homophobic, and I don't want them to hassle me.”

• “I'd rather my very conservative, Christian family and neighbors back home not find out that I'm actually a liberal, bisexual pagan. It helps keep me from being disowned.”

• “I feel pretty strongly about maintaining a separate identity online. Not only does it give me a safe place to vent about the boss, or whatever crappy thing has happened today, but it gives me some protection from prying eyes who might not understand my fascination with fan culture, slash, or even just fanfiction and fanvids.”

Conclusion• H1: Most LiveJournal users have accounts for

activities they do not want connected with their legal names, such as fan activity or political activity. – Partially supported. Next to no response from political

activists on LJ, but fandom participants overwhelmingly agreed with H1.

• H2: Most LiveJournal users will not link their LiveJournal accounts to their Facebook accounts, if they have them. – Supported, insofar as the limited sample applies

Further Questions• Will the continuing popularity of media fandom

sustain the practice of using pseudonyms online or will change to accommodate the “Facebook generation”?

• The strict separation between identities remains intact despite the encroachment of Facebook, but what steps might need to be taken to protect them with the growing “online DMV” direction of Facebook and Google?

Demographics

• Age: 30% between 18-29, 64% between 30-50

• Gender: 92% female

• Ethnicity: 88% white, 7% “multiple ethnicities”

• Education: 41% College, 26% Masters,

• Income: 35% < $25; 27% $25-50K

• Country: 69% US, 10% Canada