The objective of this project is to use cyber-human systems as a lens for understanding self-presentation as it occurs in a complex environment. This lens will be used to develop and validate theoretical and computational frameworks for understanding self-presentation in a networked world by focusing on how people conceptualize the operation of social media platforms, especially the algorithms that govern the visibility of content. Information about oneself that is shared by others, for example, can spread rapidly to unexpected audiences or contexts. Once a largely interpersonal process, self-presentation now occurs in a complex cyber-human system in which people generate content about themselves and others on media platforms, each with opaque algorithmic mechanisms that govern the visibility of content to various audiences. Facing this complexity, people develop folk theories of how social media platforms work. These conceptualizations drive people's understanding and behavior, and as such they have important social consequences, but they are currently not well understood or represented by extant theories of self-presentation.
These objectives will be accomplished through a series of novel empirical studies, combined with computational models that infer a user's conceptualization of a social media platform and that allow users to reflect on their understanding of the platform. This work builds on and integrates substantial research in the areas of self-presentation and impression management, the concept of folk theories from psychology and anthropology, and the role of platforms and algorithms in people's online experience. It provides three unique contributions: 1) empirical data on how people conceptualize and understand the role of algorithms and other visibility mechanisms, and how these folk theories influence self-presentation behavior; 2) novel computational models to aid in analysis, prediction and reflection on how information that contributes to self-presentation in online contexts is generated, shared and viewed online; 3) an empirical and computational foundation for advancing our understanding of the complex cyber-human system in which self-presentation now occurs.
