Expressing and negotiating identities in social media ecosystems: A typology of users and their associated personality profiles

Abstract

In social media research, many make a distinction between active use and passive use. This distinction may focus too simplistically on the quantity of content shared rather than the qualitative ways that individuals present themselves online. Informed by self-monitoring theory, this paper examines whether there exist distinct classes of individuals who vary with respect to how actively and selectively they present themselves online. Participants reported on measures assessing open disclosure (feeling that one can share anything), restricting audiences (limiting the telling of one's story to only some audience members), limiting identities (sharing only specific identity aspects online), passive use (reading the content of others), and extent of posting content. A latent class analysis of these assessments ($N=391$) identified four types of persons: active authentic (openly sharing without restrictions), active negotiators (sharing with audience restrictions via limited aspects of self), quiet authentic (feeling free to share, but not doing so often), and passive restrictive (low use with restricted audiences and limited identities). A mixed ANOVA using the HEXACO found that the four user types differ most notably on extraversion and emotionality. Implications are discussed.