Do You Have A Mirror on Your Desktop? Self Glorification and Exhibitionism in Facebook

The recent statistics from Facebook says it has 10 billion monthly active users. Compared to other social networking sites, Facebook users find the site quite user friendly. It is really very hard to find college students who don’t have accounts in social networking sites; especially Facebook. They keep in touch with their friends, express or share what they have in mind through these social networking sites. Active ‘Facebooking’ is determined by frequent photographs and text updates by the users. This study focuses on how the frequent usage of Facebook induces the users to follow the so called “virtual pop culture” i.e. mobility and exhibitionism. At present the popular culture among Facebook users is to get more likes and comments. The excessive number of likes gives them an opportunity to think of themselves as popular personalities. Using in-depth interview method the data were collected from college students in Tirunelveli who change their profile picture often on Facebook (N=20). The reasons for frequent change of profile pictures and updating personal pictures in public space were discussed in this paper.

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