Online Identity Construction: Exploring the Nature and Role of Online Self-Expressive Acts in the Fitness Community

The concept of self-expression has largely remained underexplored in the light of research on a more developed field of identity construction. While acknowledging the cognitive aspects of identity in the background, this study... [ view full abstract ]

The concept of self-expression has largely remained underexplored in the light of research on a more developed field of identity construction. While acknowledging the cognitive aspects of identity in the background, this study focuses on acts of self-expression which articulate identity construction in the foreground (Baumeister, 1999). The rise of social media has led to the increased salience of online self-expression, and a subsequent need to understand it better. This study investigates the formation of online identities within the fitness community by focusing on how individuals express themselves online. Netnographic research is conducted to analyse the social media profile-pages of twenty community members. Using a multimodal discourse analysis framework participants’ verbal, visual, and audio-visual posts are examined for self-expression and various modes are identified. Five salient online identities emerge from the data: the Hard-Worker, the Expert, the Happy-Camper, the Friend, and the Aestheticist. By outlining how individual instances of self-expression correspond to comprehensive identities, the findings serve to demonstrate the role of self-expressive behaviour in online identity construction, thus providing marketers with valuable insight into online communication and identity construction in general, and that of the fitness community in particular.