The publicizing of private life on Twitter

Abstract

This text investigates the growing publicizing of private life on Twitter. The main argument developed here on the basis of studies in the field of cyberculture--particularly concerning the subjects’ habits and ways of being in social networks on the web--is that contemporary culture both causes and celebrates several kinds of confusion between private and public, as well as between anonymity and celebrity. The study concludes that intimacy, privacy and life secured through secrets are values that have become increasingly obsolete, since life only seems to be meaningful and justifiable when it is shown, narrated and exhibited in several ways and in realtime. Twitter has potentialized a social capital economy based on the reputation that each person constructs about themselves and pleasurably learns to restlessly manage and enhance in every detail.

Key words: Twitter social networking sites, cyberculture, public and private.