Life online: Social media as autobiography

Gathering by JD Hancock (CC-BY-2.0)

We usually think of an autobiography as a substantial piece of work written by a noteworthy person later in their life or after they’ve experienced a significant life event. They write their autobiography after having accumulated some life experience and they generally know the outcome of the story, to a point. They write with the benefit of hindsight and the story they tell reveals their personal development over time. In this sense, we think of autobiography as an outcome.

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However, autobiography is a form of life writing (Anderson 2010, p. 144) and the term ‘life writing’ suggests the act of writing, over time.

Writing autobiography is time consuming. It requires recalling, sifting through, reflecting on and ordering memories to form a personal narrative. Poletti and Rak (2014, p. 266) propose “thinking about the autobiographical as a means of thinking”. I argue that autobiography is as much the process of compilation of the narrative as it is the finished story.

According to Anderson (2010, p. 2), Philippe Lejeune was dissatisfied with his definition of autobiography (displayed above) and stated that at a minimum “there must be ‘identity between the author, the narrator, and the protagonist’”. They must be one and the same and the author must implicitly declare that to be the case (Anderson 2010, p. 3).

Why is this important to social media?

When an individual posts on social media, the author, narrator and protagonist are often one and the same. Providing the social media user doesn’t adopt anonymity or pseudonymity and they post about themselves, the post conforms to Lejeune’s minimum standard for autobiography. They are compiling an autobiographical narrative with each additional post. Over time they are writing their autobiography.

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A difference between social media as autobiography and what we’ve traditionally thought of as autobiography is the write-tell cycle. Traditionally, the author constructs the narrative and the story is then told. With social media, the story is told as the narrative is constructed. Autobiography occurs as a process and an outcome.

In addition to his minimum standard for autobiography, Lejeune suggests that autobiography is “retrospective prose narrative” (Lejeune, cited in Anderson 2010, p. 2). While a social media post, in the moment that it’s posted, may not be retrospective, soon after it could be considered so. A series of social media posts compiled over time is largely prose (text) and it does look back. In fact, the affordances of many social media platforms require the audience to actively ‘scroll’ backward to take in the narrative, as newer posts appear first.

It’s not just the audience that scrolls back to take in the narrative on social media. The author does too. They sift through, recall and reflect on the memories presented. They may consider alternate perspectives, with hindsight, and may edit or delete posts they deem not representative of them or meaningful as part of their personal narrative. This involves introspection and insight on oneself. It is consistent with the process of writing of traditional autobiography and occurs similarly to a writer of traditional autobiography editing their draft.

This Twitter poll suggests most social media users reflect on their posts and modify them to tell a story more consistent with their self-view.

Have you edited/deleted a status update, tweet having later reflected on its content & whether it’s representative of you? #ALC701 #ALC205

— Simone Reading (@SimoneReading) August 5, 2017

Another difference between the writing of traditional autobiography and social media as autobiography is the intent of the author. Social media posts might not be written with specific storytelling intent. In that case, the autobiography might simply develop. The life story forms incidentally over time with each successive post.

Social media as autobiography depends on the affordances of the social media platform used. Some facilitate the performance of autobiography more than others.

Life online: Social media as autobiography #ALC701 #ALC205 #socialmediaasautobiography https://t.co/VpVaaHXFkP

— Simone Reading (@SimoneReading) August 11, 2017

As mentioned, Lejeune (cited in Anderson 2010, p. 2) references “prose narrative” in his definition of autobiography. While autobiography has traditionally been textual, with a few supporting images for evidence and colour, the affordances of social media allow narratives to be told by means other than prose/text. New media, and its potential for linkages, means autobiographical narratives can be presented visually, as well as textually, and be non-linear (Lejeune 2014, p. 256).

While Lejeune (2014, p. 247) distinguishes three types of autobiography – the written retrospective story, the personal diary and correspondence – new media is likely to evolve others.

 

References

Anderson, L 2010 Autobiography, 2nd edn, Routledge, London

Lejeune, P 2014, ‘Autobiography and new communication tools’ in A Poletti & J Rak (eds), Identity technologies: Constructing the self online, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison USA, pp. 247-258

Poletti, A & Rak, J 2014, ‘The blog as experimental setting’ in A Poletti & J Rak (eds), Identity technologies: Constructing the self online, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison USA, pp. 259-272