Accomplishing authenticity in a labor-exposing space

The present work, through an ethnographic study of MySpace (N = 96), examines the ways in which authenticity is accomplished within a labor-exposing space. To maintain authenticity, actors must make invisible the extensive labor of self-presentation. Certain online spaces, such as social network sites and personal interactive homepages, can be thought of as labor-exposing spaces, in that they give actors clear and explicit control over self-representations, making impressions of spontaneity difficult to accomplish (Davis, 2010; Gatson, 2011a; Marwick & boyd, 2010). I discuss and delineate several strategies used by participants to maintain authenticity on MySpace. I conclude that while the priorities of identity processes remain stable over time, the ways in which we accomplish identity are culturally, historically and materially contingent.