Locating Identities in Time: An Examination of the Formation and Impact of Temporality on Presentations of the Self through Location-Based Social Networks

Abstract

Studies of identity and location-based social networks (LBSN) have tended to focus on the performative aspects associated with marking one's location. Yet these studies often present this practice as being an a priori aspect of locative media. What is missing from this research is a more granular understanding of how this process develops over time. Accordingly, we focus on the first 6 weeks of 42 users beginning to use an LBSN we designed and named GeoMoments . Through our analysis of our users' activities, we contribute to understanding identity and LBSN in two distinct ways. First, we show how LBSN users develop and perform self-identity over time. Second, we highlight the extent these temporal processes reshape the behaviors of users. Overall, our results illustrate that although a performative use of GeoMoments does evolve, this development does not occur in a vacuum. Rather, it occurs within the dynamic context of everyday life, which is prompted, conditioned, and mediated by the way the affordances of GeoMoments digitally organize and archive past locational traces.