MY FACEBOOK PROFILE REPRESENTS ME! A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEMINISM AND THE DIGITAL EXTENDED SELF
Published date: 17/11/2017
Social media enable users to express their understanding of society, including their engagement with social movements, such as feminism. In this context, this study aims to understand how the user feminist user’s profile presents the “digital extended self” in relation to feminism on Facebook. A qualitative, exploratory study was conducted, based on interviews with Facebook users who consider themselves feminists, and documents generated from their profiles. Through content analysis of the data collected, two categories were identified: (1) Feminist actions (Engagement, Practices and Influence of Facebook); and (2) “digital extended self” (Identification, Differentiation, Centralization, Loss and Derivation). The results show that for users who consider themselves feminists, Facebook has helped them gain a stronger feminist identity. For the majority of them, their profile is part of who they are. These users also believe that they derive some of their identities through Facebook, and that this media can be a gateway to feminism. Thus, it is understood that the profiles constructed on Facebook digitally extend the “Self” for the individuals researched. This study seeks to deepen research on social movements in the virtual context, and the practice of feminism in the type of media studied.