Faceted Identity, Faceted Lives

Sep.30.2010Shelly D. Farnham, Ph.D.

Yahoo!

Elizabeth F. Churchill, Ph.D.

Yahoo! Research

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23045224@N04/2645051915/

Social and Technical Issues in Being Yourself Online

12/2/2010

Industry Research as Social Scientists

Domain• Communication, collaboration

• Social networks, groups, communities, mobile social

Understanding users• Individuals

• Pairs, groups, communities, networks

Social engineering• Technologies as interventions

with social outcomes

• Use understanding of natural social processes to inform design

12/2/2010

Problem Space

Increasingly, users connecting

to people from different areas

of their lives through social

media, especially networks

Increasingly, different social

media sites are sharing and

aggregating content

Implicit models of social

organization in networks carry

problematic assumptions: that

one identity, and one social

context, fits all

3

12/2/2010

Agenda

Background• Theoretical framework

• Related research

Study• Methodology

• Results

Conclusions and Implications

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 4

12/2/2010

Social Identity Theory

Identity exists on a

spectrum, from personal to

intergroup• Social Identities are categories of

identity to which one assigns oneself

• Social identities often associated with

normative, socially accepted roles and

behaviors

Many authentic facets to

self

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 5

bride

mom

professor

girlfriend

12/2/2010

Boundary Theory

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 6

Self and identity

are negotiated

around space and

time to retain

distinct

categories of

existence

Some of these

boundaries vary

in permeability

Nippert-Eng, (1995), Ashfort et al. (2000)

12/2/2010

Boundary Theory

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 7

Micro-transitions, managing life boundaries on

a daily basis

12/2/2010

Identity and Social Context:

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Behavior = Function (Person, Situation)

Situation = where + when + what + who else Identity enactment depends on the audience

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 8

professional

social

Intimate relationship

family

public

12/2/2010

Not all Facets Compatible

Role Strain• A felt difficulty in meeting the norms of roles, e.g., if two roles are incompatible in

the moment

Behaviors appropriate to one role can negatively

impact another

Cognitive load in switching

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 9

party animal colleagueNumerous examples of people

losing jobs because of Facebook content

12/2/2010

Online: Flattened Identity Problem

Flattened networks

• In real life, multiple identities, multiple networks

• Online, in most networks identity become flattened

Facebook primarily “social” facet….?• Created for socializing with friends, not family or work colleagues

• Yet, increasingly family and colleagues joining Facebook

Shelly’s Facebook:

Closefriends (52)

Extendedfriends (62)

Colleagues (55)

Family (5)

ArtandTechbuddy (24)

Sfbuddy (8)

Startupbuddy(4)

Don’treallyknow (50)

10

12/2/2010

Personal/Work Boundaries in Facebook

While some find value in seeing personal side of

colleagues, most feel uncomfortable mixing

personal/professional, especially where differences in

status (Skeeps and Grudin, 2009)

Majority of people in Facebook do not adapt to

increasing number of professional connections (DiMicco &

Millen, 07)

Those that adapt, do so through: (Lampinen et al. 2009):

• More private communication

• Self-censoring problematic content

• Enacting a more “inclusive” identity

• Enact only professional identity

11

12/2/2010

Questionnaire Study

12

Examine existing practices in identity and life

faceting offline and online to inform design

12/2/2010

Research Questions

Do people meaningfully vary in how they facet their lives?

What are common facets of identity?

What facets tend to be incompatible?

How do people use different technologies, in particular email vs. social networks, to support facets?

How does fear of sharing across facets impact the use of various social technologies?

13

12/2/201014

friends of friends

whole network

friends

Email Online Networks

By Intimacy in Network

me

Comparing Email vs. Networks

From:

me

By Shared Item

To:

Jim, Joe,

Bob

To: Joe

To:

Kim, Cari

e, bob

To: Cupcake

@yahoogroups

.com

To: Mary

To: Joan

high level of control, easily bounded no boundaries, easily overshare

Sharing Models

12/2/2010

Method

Questionnaire study• web-based questionnaire

• distributed online on the Yahoo! network over two weeks

Participants• 631 participants

• Recruitment requirements: In US, 18 and older

• 59% male, 41% female, mean age 50.4

(Note: US census estimated median age over 18 is 45)

Completion rates• Questionnaire had six pages total, each saved separately

• Participant included in final analysis if they completed at least

first two pages of questionnaire

• Of those included, 86% completed entire questionnaire

15

12/2/2010

General Social Tech Usage

70% go online for social tech more than once a day, 14% once a

day, averaging 129 minutes per day

99% had email, 2.9 emails each, 56 minutes spent per day

67% had a FB account, 39 minutes spent per day• 129 contacts, 57% real friends (as opposed to don’t really know them or know them through work)

9.2 mailing lists, 3.7 where know majority by name and face

16

12/2/2010

Participation in Areas of Life

17

Family most prominent area of life

Hobbies/interests compete with work/school

Social life social/clubs not as important as we might have

expected

12/2/2010

Important Identities in Areas of Life

18

Family: sister, brother, mother, daughter, husband, dad, uncle, cousin

Relationship: boyfriend, spouse, caretaker, wife, husband, partner, fiancé

Hobbies/Interests: quilter, musician, participant, collector, artist, gardener

Work/School: writer, student, manager, mentor, co-worker, engineer, custodian

Social Life/Social Clubs: friend, member, leader, follower, organizer, connector, neighbor

Religious/Spiritual: educator, preacher, congregant, devotee, member, Christian

Community/Volunteer: board member, advocate, member, volunteer, worker, donor

Other*: philosopher, socialist, conservative, caregiver, liberal, leader,

Sports: assistant coach, fan, golf, runner, participant

* Many political identities in other, suggesting should be a primary category

12/2/2010

Relationships Between Areas of Life

19

Family Relat Social Comm Hobb Sports Relig

Work/School -.06 -.05 .06 .12 -.07 .24 .07

Family .56 .34 .15 .35 .24 .31

Relationship .39 .16 .35 .22 .30

Social Life/Social Clubs .39 .47 .30 .27

Community/Volunteer .31 .37 .24

Hobbies/Interests .30 .25

Sports .25

Religious

Correlation Key

.80 = strong

.50 = moderate

.20 = weak

.00 = none

if positive: as Xh, Yhif negative: as Xh, Yi

X2 = % variance

Work most distinctly segmented from other areas of life

Relationship most correlated with family – for many people probably

considered the same

Social life most correlated with interests/hobbies– indicating time

spent on hobbies often occurs in context of social life

12/2/2010

Technology and Areas of Life

20

N = 620

N = 408

Question: To what extent do you use [technology] for any of the following areas of your life?

Email usage more diverse than Facebook

Use technology for family, then hobbies/interests

Email and Facebook usage positively correlated (r = .33, p < .001)

12/2/2010

Faceted Identity

21

(1 = not at all, and 7 = extremely so)

Questions, averaged:

“I have parts of my life that are really very

different from each other.”

“In different situations with different people, I

often act like very different persons.”

“I prefer to keep different parts of my life

separate.”

“I have many different sides of me, and the side I

show depends on the social situation.”

People vary in level

of identity faceting

Many users report

high levels of

faceted identity• Mean: 4.3

• 63% 4 and over

12/2/2010

Facet Incompatibility

22

Fewer users report

having incompatible

facets

Mean: 2.9

26% 4 and over

Correlated with

identity faceting

(r = .45, p < , .001)

12/2/2010

Facets and Social Technology Usage

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 23

Faceted identity has small,

but significant impact on

usage levels

The more faceted, the more

usage

Comparable to extroversion

UsageExtravert

Self-

Monitor

Faceted

Identity

Incomp.

Facets

Email:

Work .12 -.10 .07 .06

Family .10 -.11 .01 -.01

Relationship .22 .04 .19 .21

Social .31 .04 .14 .19

Interests .06 -.08 .14 .13

Media .16 .03 .15 .17

minutes / day .11 -.04 .04 .13

intensity .14 -.05 .09 .14

count emails .08 -.06 .10 .12

Facebook:

Work .09 -.02 .03 .07

Family .02 -.03 .02 .02

Relationship .14 .09 .16 .20

Social .10 .04 .18 .18

Interests .10 -.06 .05 .09

Media .07 .04 .14 .24

minutes / day .05 -.05 .09 .05

intensity .10 .00 .05 .09

contacts .15 -.03 .07 .00

12/2/2010

Age, Email, and Facet Incompatibility

Younger

participants spent

less time in email

for personal use if

they were low in

facet

incompatibility.

24

Interaction effect: F(1, 427) = 6.79, p < .01

12/2/2010

Incompatible Facets and Sharing Online

25

Worry Question: To what extent does worry about incompatible roles and

identities prevent you from sharing using the following social technologies?

Correlations between identity faceting and extent to which worry prevents social technology usage

Social Technology WorryIdentity Faceting

Facets Incompatibility

professional networks .23 .31

social networks .20 .34

instant messaging .20 .30

email .18 .31

group mailing lists .23 .30

social games .15 .16

Generally people do

not indicate worry

prevents them from

sharing

Higher levels of worry

in social networks

Level of worry

correlates with level

of facet

incompatibility

12/2/2010

Themes in Open-ended Comments

“social networks are very public only things that won't

come back to haunt you should be posted in them,

email is a bit more private and controllable”

“I use email for personal, non-public communication. I

assume anything on facebook or other social network is

open to the public and not secure.”

“Email is used to connect with people I already know

and to talk to them privately. Social networks are like a

virtual gathering with people who are friends,

acquaintances and strangers.”

26

Privacy

People use email for communications that need to be private

12/2/2010

“E mail is for people you know, work, social life, church,

friends, family, etc. Social networks are for strangers.”

“E-mail for immediate family. Facebook for extended

family”

“Facebook is more to connect with acquaintances on a

limited basis, but still being part of their life. E-mail is

usually more in-depth and personal with closer friends

and family.”

27

Themes in Open-ended Comments

Intimacy vs. Reach

People use email for inner social circles, social networks for outer social circles

12/2/2010

“When you post something to a social network, everyone can see it,

whether it be a private or public profile, even then all of your "friends" can

see it. I don't necessarily want every single person connected with me on

Facebook to see one thing that maybe only a few of my real friends need

to see. Or maybe I don't want my mom to see something that I did at work

or with friends. Or maybe I don't want my boss or another co-worker to

see my status when I called in "sick" to work.”

“The difference for me is, that I am gay, so I try to keep family separate, co-

workers separate from my gay family, as that is a private part of my

life,who I am talking to shouldn't be a concern of anyone elses.”

“[email] Can share different things with different people instead of sharing

everything with everyone.”

28

Themes in Open-ended Comments

Maintaining Boundaries

social networks not effective for maintaining boundaries

12/2/2010

“Behavior on Facebook is an issue - I don't want

someone else's poor decisions to reflect on me just

because I know them. On Facebook there are people I

would avoid/ignore except they are friends of friends

and it would be rude to do so.”

“I would rather use email than social networks with

people I don't know and for topics of a personal or

private nature. Social networks are not 100% under my

control, and might cause issues when hunting

employment.”

29

Themes in Open-ended Comments

Control

with social networks you are not in control

12/2/2010

Implications

People meaningfully vary in level of identity faceting

The more faceted the identity, the more social

technology usage, but also the more worry,

especially with social networks

Users effectively choose appropriate communication

channels depending on boundary management

needs

As social media technologies increasingly adopt a

social aggregation strategy, should provide tools for

segmenting areas of life, especially

work/family/social streams

Overall, family needs to be a more prominent focus in

designing social media

30

12/2/2010

Understanding Within-Person Differences

Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential 31

design for “intra-

individual” life

segmentation

in addition to

“extra-individual”

segmentation

The Average Person