Visible and Invisible Traces: Managing the Self on Social Media Platforms

This chapter explores the traces that we voluntarily leave behind on social media platforms, dictated by the selection of what we want to show and what we want to hide and how this affects the perception of ourselves. Nowadays, digital platforms have a huge impact on our lives, in re-shaping both our habits and our personal attitudes. Particularly on social media, both tangible and intangible aspects of our lives can be datafied, which in turn affect and shape our feelings and experiences. In order to explore this dynamic, I interviewed a selected target group of young media professionals who are used to promoting themselves and their work on social media, through the so-called practice of self-branding. From the qualitative analysis of 20 in-depth interviews, this chapter investigates traces derived from implicit self-branding practices, which can take the form of controlling what is not to be shared, measuring the online reactions, and hiding relevant information. All these non-activities are also strategic in building and managing the users’ online branded personas. Thus, through the management of the visible and invisible traces on social media profiles, users convey a branded and polished version of themselves.