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12. Narratives of the self: Comments and confessions on Facebook

Chapter of: Digital Humanities in the India Rim: Contemporary Scholarship in Australia and India(pp. 225–242)

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Metadata
Title12. Narratives of the self
SubtitleComments and confessions on Facebook
ContributorRimi Nandy(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0423.12
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0423/chapters/10.11647/obp.0423.12
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightRimi Nandy
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-11-06
Long abstractNarratives are structured around events, which are used to tell a story. The self is perpetually being constructed through narratives of experience. This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of Facebook confession pages and how they contribute to the construction of digital identity. Drawing on insights from my project on the role of Facebook College Confession pages, the chapter examines how these platforms have transformed the way users express and shape their identities. The anonymity provided by these pages allows users to post confessions without revealing their identities, encouraging a form of virtual self-exploration. These confessions, often written by nameless authors, generate a complex and ongoing narrative of identity, shaped by the interaction of multiple voices and viewpoints. The chapter also explores the motivations behind sharing personal confessions, even when the responses may be negative, and how this contributes to the perpetual construction of the digital self. By examining the intersection of public and private spheres in these online spaces, this chapter highlights how the breaking of the public-private divide enables users to create and negotiate their identities in a digital, networked world. The narrative constructed is endless, and the post is not an end in itself. It paves the way for the generation of an endless narrative by multiple authors with multiple viewpoints. This chapter explores the reasons behind sharing such posts on Facebook, even if the comments are negative in tone. It will refer to Anthony Giddens’ concept of time-space “distanciation” (Keefer et al., 2019) to show how multiple tellers through their narratives help to build the complex networked identity of a user. The study will also analyse the role played by the breaking of the public-private divide in creating such spaces for the construction of a private self through public voices.
Page rangepp. 225–242
Print length18 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Rimi Nandy

(author)
Assistant Professor, Department of Languages, School of Arts and Humanities at Christ University
Coordinator, Centre for Academic and Professional Support at Christ University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3382-1513

Ms Rimi Nandy is an Assistant Professor, Department of Languages, School of Arts and Humanities, Coordinator, Centre for Academic and Professional Support, Christ University, Lavasa, Pune, India. She has been teaching English Language and Literature at various institutions since 2011. Her research interests include Digital Humanities, narratology, media studies, postmodernism, posthumanism and Japanese Cultural Studies. She has published journal articles and book chapters in the field of Digital Humanities.

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