Presentation for

1. Facework on Facebook
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2. as a New Literacy Practice?
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3. Conceptual Framework
• Language and Literacy – The new literacy studies;
(Barton and Hamilton, 1998); Street, 2003;
• Social Network Theory;
• Facework, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life –
Goffman;
• Narrative and Discourse Analysis

4. New Literacy
Studies
• Shift from the
psychological to a social
model;
• Move beyond encoding
& decoding skills;
• Literacy as always
context specific;
• Literacy as a social
practice;
• Literacy as plural;
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5. New Literacy
Studies
• VERNACULAR - Literacy in
everyday life
• Not schooled literacy but
‘literacy under the desk’
• Text making that is not assessed
but that is still important in
DOING life
• Literacy as something people DO
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6. From a socio-cultural perspective it is impossible to
separate out from text-mediated social practices the
bits concerned with reading or writing (or any other
sense of literacy) and to treat them independently of
all the non-print bits, like values and gestures, context
and meaning, action and objects, talk and interaction,
tools and spaces. They are all non-subtractable parts of
integrated wholes. “Literacy bits” do not exist apart
from the social practices in which they are embedded
and in which they are acquired.
(Lankshear and Knobel, 2006:13)

7. New Literacies
• Digital technology
• Mobile technologies
• Multimodality
• Speed of publication
• Wide dissemination
But does this bring about anything new in terms
of practice? Is this just about the tools?

8. • More polished performances of old practices
(Davies and Merchant, 2009)

9. A Call for New Research
• Are we, in our fascination with new media
seeing the concomittent changes to literate
practice (or cognitive processes and social
practices) as more radical than they really are?
(Moje, 2009: 350)

10. Social network sites
• … individuals to (1) construct a public or semi
public profile within a bounded system, (2)
articulate a list of other users with whom they
share a connection, (3) view and traverse their
list of connections and those made by others
in the system
(boyd and Ellison 2008: 211)

11. Social network theorists
• Public displays of connection (Donath and
boyd, 2004)
• Online spaces defined by social networks –
your friends are the ‘walls’, the perimeters;
(Boyd 2006)
• Sunden (2003) Writing oneself into being

12. • .. For teenagers, the online realm may be
adopted enthusiastically because it represents
their space, visible to the peer group more than
to adult surveillance, an exciting yet relatively
safe opportunity to conduct the psychological
task of adolescence – to construct, experiment
with and present a reflexive project of the self in
a social context
(Livingstone, 2008:396)

13. The Ongoing story of the self
• Giddens 1991: our stories help us make sense
of the world and our place within it;
• Hymes (1996): ‘life as a source of narrative’ …
‘slight incidents, have the potentiality of an
interest that is worth re-telling’
• Langellier and Peterson (2004): people make
sens of their experiences through story telling
– and involve themselves in ‘cultural
conversations’

14. Goffman
• The rituals of the everyday
• Presentation of self across domains
• Coherence of performance – taking a line
• A line is verbal and non-verbal
• Actors form part of their own audience

15. Goffman: On Facework
To maintain „face‟ is to acquire and
keep a positive value for the that
someone is taking
Facework describes everything
someone does in order to keep „face‟
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16. while concern for face focuses attention of the
person on the current activity, he (sic) must, to
maintain face in this activity, take into
consideration his place in the social world
beyond it

17. Research Questions
Can Literacy practices on Facebook be
considered new literacy practices?
Does Facebook provide new ways for
teenahgers to present themselves?
Does Facebook offer new ways for friendship
management?
Do Literacy practices in Facebook affect
presentations of self in other contexts (and
vice versa)?
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18. The Data
25 x 16 and 17 year olds
Friendship groups
One comprehensive school - A Level
students
One private girls’ school – A level
students
One post 16 college – ‘basic skills
class’
Post 16 college – GCSE English Class
Interviews and ‘walk throughs’
Screenshots
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19. I joined it cos my friends were on it. They
didn’t nag me to go on but people were
always talking about it at school.
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20. I was like, you know when I read my
emails, people would invite me to
Facebook cos I weren’t on it. It were like
when will you get on it? I was sick of
emails saying like do you wanna join
Facebook and that? And I was like “No”.
And I just like deleted hundreds of FB
invites. And finally I just said like “fair
enough I’ll join”.
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21. You have to go on (Facebook) otherwise its like you don‟t exist.
If you are not on there, then where are you? 21

22. I joined about 2 years ago. I was on another network site
called Bebo. And a lot of my friends had moved up. A
lot of my friends were like … well it was just that
Facebook seemed like a more mature person’s social
networking site. I think Bebo was aimed at a younger
generation of er .. I think that Bebo was a bit more
ridiculous really. And I thought that I was ready to move
on really. It was nice to just start doing something a bit
newer too. A bit intriguing. Also a lot of older people,
like my cousins and older friends, just older people I
knew of were all on Facebook and they kind of smirked
at the idea of Bebo.
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23. Pete reads aloud:
There‟s nothing like a bit of Mumford & Sons (a band) in the morning.
Cos this is a band I like listening to at the moment of a morning. So I have got
comments from people like my friends basically, my friend‟s girlfriend and stuff.
I have lots of comments on that really and they are making an in-joke out of it I
think.
There‟s nothing like two pairs of espadrilles for 20 pooonds
After about five seconds the topic of my conversation and status loses its
meaning cos people add stuff to it. Added an in joke, a private joke to take it on.
And you forget how it started. It‟s like a game.
This is my 363 friends and that‟s like me and this girl, we are married. as you
can see I have said I am married to this girl. We are friends but we are not
going out. It‟s just a joke.
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24. FRIENDS
That‟s how many friends I‟ve got. 762. I think
its stupid if you add people you don‟t know. I
know all these people. Well not know them
KNOW them. I know who they all are.
Facebook friends is not the same as normal
friends. I have two best friends. And they are
normal friends who I mostly talk to on chat.
I have put my friends in lists so I can sort out
who sees what. .I have 4 lists That‟s what‟s
quite good. You can let some people see a few
things; more people see a few more things and
then there‟s totally public. Well public to who
you‟ve friended.
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25. FRIENDS
K: You know the chat thing? You can put them in groups now so that you can
appear online to some and offline to others.
S: Oh do you use that?
L: I do. I have a friends list. I have a yeah list and a meah list! Theyeah list,
these are the people who I’ll like - I’ll talk to, like my close friends, and
meah, I don’t really like to talk to, they are on my friends list but they are
annoying to talk to and they WILL talk to you if they see you are online. And
you just don’t want to be doing with it. I usually have my other friends list
and then my yeah and my meah. Sometimes I might move people about the
different lists! I will still talk to the meah people on my wall and at school,
but I don’t like talk to them on the chat bit as they’s mess it up. You know
with their constant little interactions and things they say going on all the
time.
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26. FRIENDS
• S: Also there are reasons why in the future you
might want to talk to them and so you should have
them as Facebook friends just in case. Like if you
met someone who was from somewhere random
like Rotherham, and then you found out you had to
go to Rotherham, then you might contact them. So
if you did not have them as your Facebook friend
then you would not have that option. So it‟s a bit
like keeping them in your address book even if you
don‟t talk to them all the time. Only it is better than
that as in fact you are sort of rubbing along and
they can see stuff about you and you can see stuff
about them. So if you did meet face to face, then it
is easier to talk.
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26

27. PHOTOS
• I never have a photo that just has me in
them cos I just feel kind of like that I will
look to big headed or self centred if it is just
me. So I prefer to have one of me with
other people and so I just change it. If a
better or nicer one comes up I change it.
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27

28. PHOTOS
• S: And yeah so if I am looking at a girl‟s photo
to decide … if you fancy a girl you look on her
profile and you think do I fancy her and so you
have a look at all her pictures to get more of an
idea if you do or not
• L: Yeah lots of people do that.
• K: Yeah
• L: And also if you want someone to fancy you
you need to have a good selection of nice
photos of yourself looking really good showing
cos they can see your profile pictures even if
you have not friended them yet.
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29. PHOTOS
• S: Yeah Facebook stalking. It‟s a good pastime.
• L: You have to also have a lot of friends
otherwise it looks like you are sad.
• K: And pictures of yourself having a good time!
You have to have those. You have to show you
have friends and that you go to lots of places.
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30. PHOTOS
Also every picture that goes into your album for
profile pictures, so like if there’s another one
that you want to be laid down in history there …
It’s kind of like a record of your best erm. Its kind
of like the ones you are choosing what you want
where its what you want to portray yourself. It is
not just the ones that have been tagged. Its like
the ones that you have elevated to the position
of profile pictures.
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31. PHOTOS
Look this is when I brought my camera to school. My profile
was looking boring and so I needed pictures to brighten it
up. So we decided to have a bit of a mad day and even the
teachers joined in. Look at this one. That was a great day in
the end, so we could put all this lot on Facebook.
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31

32. ... so on Friday night at the
gig, we‟re arriving as a couple
yeah? .... its gonna be well
wicked ..... just can‟t wait to
see everybody‟s Facebook on
Saturday morning.
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33. Name Words Likes Time
Kate Happy Birthday Sam! 1 Saturday 10.05
Dent
Poppy Happy Birthday Sami! 1 Saturday 11.05
Stilgoe
Sinead Happy Birthday Sami! 1 Saturday 11.20
Fox
Beth Happy Birthday Sam 1 Saturday 11.37
Little
Becky Happy Birthday from me too 1 Saturday 11.54
Sands
Anita Happy Birthday from your favourite aunty!! Have a 1 Saturday 12.30
Vashi good day.
Ali Lord Have a great day. See you later. 1 Saturday 12.35
Samitra Thanks everyone!! Hope to see some of you later @ Saturday 12.40
Balu Happy Wik! Message me for where we‟re going after.
Lindsay And Hapy Birthday from me too, Will CU laters. 1 Saturday 14.03
Barr Hopefully there‟ll be some good pix @ „Happy Wik‟.
Samitra I mean Happy Wok! Saturday 14.05
Balu
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34. Person Words Likes Times
Amy Beal Lying on the sofa watching Enders 1 Friday @ 20.10
Ali Lord Me too and eating chips. Nom Nom 1 Friday @ 20.11
Nom.
Amy Beal Is that your tea? Are you calling for Friday @ 20.11
me tomorrow?
Ali Lord No & yep . *Burp*. 6 Friday @ 20.15
Amy Beal I pay you to work not to like me. Lol Friday @ 20.20
Ali Lord Zainab Friday @ 20.22
Amy Beal Yep. I totally hate her. Such a troll. Friday @ 20.23
Ali Lord Wouldn‟t it be totally mint to live in 2 Friday @ 20.23
Albert Square
Amy Beal ROTFL. Nightmare more like. Friday @ 20.27
Ali Lord Have you done your statement thing Friday @ 20.30
yet? I‟m thinking of putting something
about being an expert on Enders.
Amy Beal And Facebook. Lol ))))))) Friday @ 20.31
Ali Lord Popular Culture Consultant. Friday @ 20.31
Amy Beal OMG!!! PCC. Let‟s go on chat. I need Friday @ 20.33
to ask you something. Have you got
time? 34

35. Name Words Likes Time
Manjinder Some people think they are so great Saturday
Singh 21.03
Leni Khan Some of us ARE 3 Saturday
21.15
Manjinder Too true. *Looks in mirror* Lol Saturday
Singh 21.16
Leni Khan I just think that by the time you are in year 12 you Saturday
should act a bit more mature. It‟s like they think 21.20
there about 14. Well they think they act 20. But
actually its about 14. Or 12. (you know who you
are, you perthetic (sp??)immature people yeah)
Manjinder I know who you mean. I‟m not going to Biol on Saturday
Singh Monday anyhow. 21.22
Manjinder I‟ve run out of credit. Can you text our Sanj for Saturday
Singh me? I want to ask her to bring me a Chinese on 21.25
her way home.
Leni Khan K but you have to message me her number Saturday
though. 21.25
Manjinder K. Sent it! Saturday
Singh 21.27 35

36. Time Likes
Lynne Friday 4 So I’ve just made some spicy potato wedges
Pound 18.31
Tom Friday Yum
18.32
Lynne Friday And now I’m eating them
Pound 18.32
Tom Friday Let me taste
18.34
Lynne Friday There you go
Pound 18.35
Tom Friday Delicious. I’ll wash up my dear
18.38
Lynne Friday Not in your best suit my sweet
Pound 18.39
Soo Saturday 6 Are you two mad?
Lin 9.46
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37. Time Likes
Richard Tweed Sunday Down in the dumps
17.10
Kelvin James 17.45 Been dumped?
Richard Tweed 17.50 In my status
Kelvin James 17.52 No no No! *sings*
Richard Tweed 17.54 You don‟t love me and I know now! LOL
Kelvin James 19.05 Are you gonna do some culling?
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38. Matthew Longden Tuesday 12 So Look here.
15.11
Tom Smith Tuesday 5 Mentalist
15.12
Simon Madison Tuesday No mate you cant get me Im not looking
15.35
Matthew Longden 16.36 Sorry. I was just too quick. And you’re to
sl-o-o-o-o-o-ow.
Tom Smith Madison is slow. A slow worm .
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39. • Display of friendships as performance to self and others;
• Management of the future and of the past;
• Public/Private domains merging and being re-defined on a moment by moment basis;
• Visibility and invisibility possible – for reading as well as performing;
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40. • Preservation of traditional rituals, conventions and practices; (Birthdays etc);
• New conventions and rituals emerging to enact traditional practices & self presentation (e.g. poking; liking);
• Blending of old and new rituals and ways of performing the self
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41. Routinised presentation of self in everyday life
Contextualised construction of credentials
New Social Literacy Practices
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42. http://www.digital-literacies.com/
j.a.davies@sheffield.ac.uk
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43. Photo credits … thanks to all
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/58847482@N03/5766026059/in/set-72157626036836006/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsey-nicole/5834992756/in/pool-394185@N23/
• http://www.educationinnovating.org/2010/12/is-technology-distraction
• http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/412918/enlarge