Oppedisano Annotated Bib

Cole Oppedisano
DMS 250
Annotated Bibliography

Seidman, Gwendolin. “Expressing the ‘True Self’ on Facebook.” Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 31, February 2014, Pages 367–372. Science Daily. Web. Sept 19, 2015.

Seidman’s article provides positive reasoning for why students would use Facebook regularly. Its studies of Facebook behaviors and background knowledge of psychology, including the definition of the “true self”, are resourceful in my own question of why people, specifically students, continue to use Facebook despite some of its apparent negative effects. Considering this, I have decided that this will be my exhibit source. I will converse with this article as well as introduce survey results into the conversation, and hopefully will be able to see how accurate Seidman’s ideas are in the context of UR undergrads. I believe it is a sound study, and expect it to be my most useful source.

Personally, I am always fascinated by the pursuit of authenticity, whether it was my own, a friend’s, or a group of people. In the context of Facebook, something I personally view as inauthentic, I find it particularly interesting. Since I am tackling the question of why do students use Facebook in a pursuit of authenticity, I think Seidman’s article is a good point from which to jump off in other directions. Her studies and conclusions show an egotistical motive behind various uses of Facebook for expression of the true self, and I would like to explore these further, interpret them in different ways, put them into dialogue with other articles and studies. Perhaps the question will change along the way with more research and more questioning (I could see it evolving into “is the expression of the ‘true self’ on Facebook authentic?”), but the dialogue with Seidman is critical for either question.