The rise of the invisible wires keeping us plugged in and of new media such as smartphones and social media has led to significant changes in society and the everyday lives of its members. The establishment of new virtual or imagined spaces such as social media in turn create spaces for new ways of strategic self-presentation aimed at the external portrayal of an individual’s various versions of Self in the best possible light. At the same time, these spaces lead to self-promotion, individualism, and narcissism, bolstered by habits and practices that can be compared to the lifestyles of the celebrities or stars. Self-presentation shows viewers more than just photographs, but an insight into an individual, into his sense of Self and the various types of personal Self, whose incongruence can even result in psychological pathologies. This master’s thesis uses semiotic analysis in a case study investigating how users of the social media platform Facebook present themselves through the platform’s Story function and how the phenomenon of »microcelebrity« arises therefrom. It is shown that such practices are not random or accidental, but are a strategically designed, silent, new-age method of individual self-presentation in a virtual – imaginary environment, and at the same time those practices have a great power of indirect impact on the society, its behavior and function inside the real world.
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