12. Narratives of the self

Narratives are structured around events, which are used to tell a story. The self is perpetually being constructed through narratives of experience. This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of Facebook confession pages and how they contribute to the construction of digital identity. Drawing on insights from my project on the role of Facebook College Confession pages, the chapter examines how these platforms have transformed the way users express and shape their identities. The anonymity provided by these pages allows users to post confessions without revealing their identities, encouraging a form of virtual self-exploration. These confessions, often written by nameless authors, generate a complex and ongoing narrative of identity, shaped by the interaction of multiple voices and viewpoints. The chapter also explores the motivations behind sharing personal confessions, even when the responses may be negative, and how this contributes to the perpetual construction of the digital self. By examining the intersection of public and private spheres in these online spaces, this chapter highlights how the breaking of the public-private divide enables users to create and negotiate their identities in a digital, networked world. The narrative constructed is endless, and the post is not an end in itself. It paves the way for the generation of an endless narrative by multiple authors with multiple viewpoints. This chapter explores the reasons behind sharing such posts on Facebook, even if the comments are negative in tone. It will refer to Anthony Giddens’ concept of time-space “distanciation” (Keefer et al., 2019) to show how multiple tellers through their narratives help to build the complex networked identity of a user. The study will also analyse the role played by the breaking of the public-private divide in creating such spaces for the construction of a private self through public voices.