Open AccessFriending the Virgin
Author(s) -
Larry Friedlander
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
sage open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.357
H-Index - 32
ISSN - 2158-2440
DOI - 10.1177/2158244011415423
Subject(s) - depiction , novelty , rhetorical question , persuasion , representation (politics) , subject (documents) , set (abstract data type) , identity (music) , sociology , presentation (obstetrics) , social media , portrait , aesthetics , psychology , social psychology , computer science , art , world wide web , visual arts , literature , political science , medicine , politics , law , radiology , programming language
This article looks at how previous practice of portraiture preparedthe way for self-presentation on social networking sites. A portrait is not simply anexercise in the skillful or “realistic” depiction of a subject. Rather, it is arhetorical exercise in visual description and persuasion and a site of intricatecommunicative processes. A long evolution of visual culture, intimately intertwined withevolving notions of identity and society, was necessary to create the conditions for theparticular forms of self-representation we encounter on Facebook. Many of thesepremodern strategies prefigure ones we encounter on Facebook. By delineating the wayscurrent practices reflect earlier ones, we can set a baseline from which we can isolatethe precise novelty of current practice in social networking sites