Oversharing: Presentations of Self in the Internet Age

People ‘overshare’ when they interact with others through the screens of computers and smartphones. Oversharing means to divulge more of their inner feelings, opinions and sexuality than they would in person, or even over the phone. Text messaging, Facebooking, tweeting, camming, blogging, online dating, and internet porn are vehicles of this oversharing, which blurs the boundary between public and private life. This book examines these ‘presentations of self’, acknowledging that we are now much more public about what used to be private. With this second edition, Agger adds a new chapter on whether privacy is possible that addresses selfies, job loss due to oversharing, the surveillance state, and examples of when the private should go public.

Author Biography

Ben Agger works in critical theory, cultural /media/Internet studies, and critical food and exercise studies at University of Texas-Arlington,where he also directs the Center for Theory. He edits Fast Capitalism,which can be found at www.fastcapitalism.com. Among his recent books are Texting toward Utopia and Body Problems, and he is working on Age of Opinion, a study of message boards, tweeting and cyberdemocracy.