Social Networking, Mobilities, and the Rise of Liquid Identities

Abstract

This research focuses on representations of mobilities and their role in social networking on Facebook. Based on an ethnographic research design embedded in a grounded theory approach, the study investigates the mobility patterns of one Generation Y network. The analysis of 50 profiles in this network, including texts, photographs, photo albums and check-ins, suggests that Facebook fosters corporeal as well as imaginative mobility, ultimately leading to the emergence of ‘liquid identities’, i.e. identities modelled on movement. Social media, specifically Facebook, have set in motion complex patterns of competition for network capital and social status based on mobilities.

Key Words:

• Facebook
• Identity
• Mobilities
• Network capital
• Social media
• Transport
• Travelness

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Scott Cohen and Julia Hibbert for providing valuable comments on earlier versions of this article. We also gratefully acknowledge extremely insightful and generous comments by two anonymous reviewers that have helped to considerably improve the study.

Disclosure statement

There is no financial interest or benefit on the side of the authors arising from the direct applications of our research.