A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF FACEBOOK ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW IDENTITIES IN HUMAN RELATIONS

Abstract

The dawn of the digital age has created a vast space to build new dimensions of personal identity. Many new platforms have been created where people can present themselves in a new way. Thus the new identities emerging with the advent of new media have further expanded personal relationships. In present society, most of the human relationships as well as human behaviour are determined by social media. Therefore, many favourable as well as unfavorable outcomes emerged through it. The primary objective of this research was to study the impact of new identities arising from the Facebook in human relationships. The specific objective in this research was to investigate the change of human relationships due to the use of Facebook. Facebook is used as the research field for this research. The fundamental reason for selecting Facebook as the research field is that it is the leading social media platform in modern society. The textbooks, journal articles and official websites have been used as secondary data. Data collected from the literature available were analyzed through content analysis method. It was evident that personal, social and collective identities have changed in many ways. The traditional identities have given way to media saturated identities in the modern world. The orientation of the identity has been governed by social media platforms and the individuals unknowingly engage in the dual or multiple identities at times. The self and others’ perception on the traditional identities also have changed to a great extent. In many cases the exact identities of the individuals were not fixed and transition is natural. The number of relationships has increased remarkably whereas the specific bondage among the network has been minimum.