Shared spaces and personal corners in social networking websites: The contracted and the cryptically revealed self

This interpretive paper (mainly based on interviews) addresses the gap in the intersection of personal and social identities with a specific focus on the role of objects as relationship mediators. The ‘contracted self’ (Tian and Belk, 2005) is explored further as a mechanism through which members of social networking websites manage a balance between individuality and a simultaneous connectedness to multiple others in search of ‘the social link’ (Cova, 1997). Two strategies of either contracting or cryptically revealing the self are identified and explained in terms of fostering shared social spaces and preserving individuality in multilayered environments.