Multitasking Identity: Online Identity Performance as Multitasking, Multicasting, and Resistance

• In Event: The Push and Pull of Technologically-Mediated Multitasking: Considering Communication as Cause and Consequence

Abstract

People often respond to multitasking as an inevitable, necessary, but often undesirable aspect of contemporary technological and work life; however, multitasking may also operate as a form of resistance. Social network sites (SNS) compose a prominent group of technologies implicated in multitasking pressures. They also operate as contexts for identity performance. Identity construction in SNSs can be viewed as a form of multitasking that is both ongoing and deliberate, although not necessarily intentional. At the same time, the current structure of many SNS and their interconnected online and mobile technologies conglomerate formerly separate identity audiences (e.g., family, friends, co-workers, clients), creating a context in which identity performance is multicast rather than multitasked. The pressure to resist this conglomerated multicast performance often results in people refusing to participate in SNS, or creating multiple accounts to target different audiences. Thus, multitasking can also operate as a form of resistance against the pressure to construct a single – in the sense of centrally located – online identity performance. Given the temporal and physical discontinuity as well as the broadcast nature of these media, what are the implications of multitasking identity? As participation in SNS continues to grow, and companies create “lists” and alternative “life streams” to technologically manage these different identity audiences, it is increasingly important to explore the human factor and technological logistics of multitasking identity and/or resisting pressure towards the conglomeration of identity performance.

Authors

• Patrice Buzzanell, Purdue University

• Brenda Berkelaar, Northeastern University

• Rebecca Dohrman, Maryville University