MySpace as Make-Up

Today I was reading an article on The Significance of MySpace by Corrante's Danah Boyd, and I had an aha! moment. Boyd is writing about teens and how they use MySpace to create an identity--including a visual identity:

Every day, we dress ourselves in a set of clothes that conveys something about our identity - what we do for a living, how we fit into the socio-economic class hierarchy, what our interests are, etc.... The dynamics of identity production play out visibly on MySpace. Profiles are digital bodies, public displays of identity where people can explore impression management [2]. Because the digital world requires people to write themselves into being [3], profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media. Explicit reactions to their online presence offers valuable feedback. The goal is to look cool and receive peer validation.

Soon enough, an entire industry will arise around the notion of "impression management," i.e., beauty products for blogs and other websites--call it Web 3.0.  As we come to inhabit our online identities more and more comfortably, we'll want to adapt and adorn them, changing our looks frequently. There will be a need for tools to do this. Think of the blog template, wallpaper and icons as early manifestations.

Tags: beauty, MySpace, futurism, web 3.0

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