Mediating Experiences of ‘Growing Up’ on Facebook’s Timeline: Privacy, Ephemerality and the Reflexive Project of Self

Abstract

In 2014, Facebook will have existed for a decade. The site has become embedded into everyday life for many users, and for some young users, significant parts of their social lives have been played out on social network sites. As spaces in which social exchanges, identities and systems of belonging are articulated and made visible, these sites also act as archives of transition for young people, effectively capturing ‘growing up’ stories through a chronicle of mediated, transitional experiences. Through the timeline format (the most recent iteration of the profile at the time of writing), Facebook has begun to draw attention to and capitalise on the archival nature of the site. By emphasising its role in mediating these social exchanges and recalling status updates made or images uploaded years earlier, Facebook becomes both the site upon which narratives of transition are played out and organised, and also the site through which these variously public and private disclosures are recalled and reflected upon.