The Puzzle of Online Self-Presentation: Shame, Control and Bad Faith

This thesis argues that online interactions exacerbate social anxiety and loneliness through a mistaken approach to social emotions like shame and embarrassment. In Chapter 1, I draw on Goffman’s account of face-work and Turkle’s sociological studies to outline seven characteristic features of online interaction—control, opacity, asynchronicity, aspatiality, divided attention, availability, and reproducibility. Chapter 2 turns to Velleman’s ideal of shame control through privacy, which suggests that increased control over our self-presentation through the features identified in chapter 1 should lead to more successful interactions. Yet, I show that this ideal is “self-effacing”: attempts to eliminate shame through privacy tend to intensify it, a phenomenon also reflected in psychological models of social anxiety. Using Sartre’s account of bad faith and being-for-the-Other, I diagnose two characteristic failures in online self-presentation: “blindness”, in which we deny the impact of others’ judgments, and “absorption”, in which we over-identify with them. Both attitudes exacerbate social anxiety and distance us from others. Chapter 3 develops Sartre’s positive counterpart to bad faith—authenticity—in dialogue with analytic debates on emotional responsibility. I propose a model of emotional authenticity, which involves acknowledging, reflecting on, and taking responsibility for emotions without trying to eliminate them. Chapter 4 explores how emotional authenticity can transform our approach to selfpresentation and lead to better interactions. Finally, Chapter 5 considers whether digital platforms can support authentic self-presentation, evaluating existing apps that purport to be more authentic than others and suggesting how platform designs could be adapted.