Context Collapse and Face-Work

March 20, 2024 5:27 AM

"...[W]hile both context collusion and context collision are examples of collapsed contexts, they are conceptually and consequentially distinct from each other. The intentionality of the individual and their role in either allowing new information to come forth—as in the case of context collusion—or if it is unbeknownst that this information will be introduced—as in the case of context collision—is crucial. We also contend that context collapse is linked to an individual’s perception of face."

Loh, J. (M. I., & Walsh, M. J. (2021). Social Media Context Collapse: The Consequential Differences Between Context Collusion Versus Context Collision. Social Media + Society, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211041646

posted by cupcakeninja (13 comments total)

From TFA:

Context collapse blurs the boundaries between public, private, and professional selves…

…context collisions refer to those “occasions in which contexts come together without any effort on the part of the actor, and sometimes, unbeknownst to the actor with potentially chaotic results”

The key difference between the two is intentionality and it is important to note that neither has an inherent value judgment attached.
posted by drowsy at 5:54 AM on March 20 [3 favorites]

This strikes me as one of those studies where the results are exactly what you respect, but it is also sort of surprising no one had done the work of analyzing it previously.

This is a big concern for me. I try hard to maintain a solid distinction between my private and professional lives. I work in people's homes and I don't want to be perceived as unreliable. I also don't want to express any beliefs that will leave them worrying I am judging them on political or moral grounds.

My solution is just not to have any social media under my real name, and not to post pictures online. It works well for me, but probably isn't much of a solution for people working in careers where social media presence is a necessity.
posted by The Manwich Horror at 6:03 AM on March 20 [8 favorites]

They get through that whole paper without once using the phrase "horny on main"?
posted by mhoye at 6:15 AM on March 20 [7 favorites]

or citing that famous moment of total context collapse with copious amounts of face-loss that was Dilbert-creator Scott Adams on MetaFilter?
posted by chavenet at 6:43 AM on March 20 [12 favorites]

could someone do a lay-language summary?
posted by lokta at 6:59 AM on March 20 [3 favorites]

could someone do a lay-language summary?

Sometimes your separate social worlds collide - different friend groups, your family, your job, etc. Social media makes this MUCH more likely and can have serious consequences for you. Sometimes this happens on purpose, even initiated by you, and sometimes it does not.
posted by briank at 7:54 AM on March 20 [13 favorites]

I can't offer a full summary of the article, but (tl;dr) people have frequently noticed that internet users exist in multiple spheres: social spheres, professional spheres, family worlds, etc. Sometimes those worlds are intentionally brought together, as when Maria decides to connect on Facebook with her colleague Jim. Someetimes they are unintentionally brought together, as when colleague Jim decides to tag Jose's personal Facebook profile in a photo of a work event, though they have not previously connected together. These interactions can cause a range of emotions -- fear, anger, concern, worry, etc. -- particularly when people's worlds are forced together without their consent or advance knowledge. The study used ~150 college students, putting them in various scenarios to explore their reaction to these blending of spheres. They concluded that bringing different spheres of one's life together is a Big Deal, whether it goes well or poorly, and it requires substantial effort (even if routine for some people) to manage these mergings. Overall, the article is most concerned with how this impacts "vocational identity," so -- how people's work personas are, with all the attendant factors that you can imagine associated with that.
posted by cupcakeninja at 7:56 AM on March 20 [8 favorites]

One solution is don't use fascbook.
posted by hypnogogue at 8:54 AM on March 20

It's an interesting study although the scenario participants responded to seems a bit contrived to me, or maybe just outdated. It feels like a cautionary tale from a decade ago that wouldn't happen today.

I think most people don't use their personal Facebook profile (as opposed to a separate "Page," or just a profile on another site like LinkedIn) as a networking tool, and those that do generally lock down who can tag them. Also, it feels like it's just generally a pretty major faux pas to post unflattering pictures of people without consent, let alone tag them.

It's like asking, would I be upset if I were in the middle of a business meeting and my goofiest friend burst through the door holding a beer and laughing about the hijinks we used to get into. Like, yes, of course I would, but I don't live in a sitcom, so there are about a dozen different reasons that wouldn't ever happen.
posted by smelendez at 9:49 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

I like the term context collapse. It's always good to get a name for a thing you didn't know was A Thing.

Adams> I remember seeing that, but I'd forgotten that it was here (or maybe this was just one of the places he did that -- leopard/spots and all that). A Kibo, but humourless.
posted by BCMagee at 10:25 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

A Kibo

oh, we got one of those too
posted by cortex at 4:13 PM on March 20

Huh, I clicked through because I thought the lead-in excerpt was an entry in this year's Bulwer-Lytton contest.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:44 PM on March 20

people's work personas

Or as I like to call it, my worksona.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 11:03 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]