Front- and Backstage in Social Media

Oversharing of information about one's private life or the private lives of others appears to be an oft-noted phenomenon in the context of social media. This paper aims at answering the following question: What is it in social media as media and in the communicative situation of the person using them that facilitate oversharing of private information? A comparative analysis of face-to-face interaction and interaction in social media is conducted. The two forms of interaction are compared, firstly, by using Erving Goffman's system model of communication, which consists of eight different system requirements and system constraints, and, secondly, by comparing expressions given, expressions given off and frontand backstage in face-to-face interaction and interaction in social media. The difference between face-to-face interaction and social media has to do with differences in the very natures of the two forms of interaction. The almost automatic coordination between interactors that we find in face-to-face interaction has in social media been replaced by a ping-pong model of interaction in which the technical limitations on the flows of expressions make the transitions in terms of turntaking, framing and back-channel cues highly distinct and mechanical. When it comes to the communicative situation in which social media users find themselves, it appears to be paradoxical: on the one hand, the users can present themselves in a highly controlled manner while, on the other hand, the risk of oversharing appears to be