Social personalities in sports: an analysis of the differences in individuals’ self-presentation on social networks

Abstract

People use the various social media very differently. And such activity clearly demonstrates how usage establishes notably differentiated characters and behaviours. This article bases itself on Goffman to apply his theory on people’s self-presentation to the field of social networks and to analyse such behaviour through various examples. Accordingly, we have quantitively and qualitatively investigated social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for 15 people in Germany from three different areas (sports, media/entertainment and politics). Our results allow us to determine clear differences in usage of different social media channels between the groups of people, but also among the sportspersons, above all regarding extent, way used or authenticity. We, therefore, advocate in future discussing multiple social personalities in social media instead of the appearance on it.