IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE OF PRIVATE SPACES

INTRODUCTION

Social media has changed the way we communicate with ourselves and each other. As we garner more attention on our public accounts, we might seek private spaces in which we can vent, complain, or talk about more personal matters. In this field report, I observed my friends and mutuals’ private accounts on Twitter. I tend to notice how mine differs from others and although I am aware they can be whatever we make them out to be, I ask myself: am I using this account properly? What do others use theirs for? How often? Do they refine it, organize it? Over the past 5 days, I aimed to find commonalities in how we engage with others — via replies and quote retweets — and look at ourselves in the digital realm. My report goes as follows: documentation sample, field notes sample of May 8th, analysis sample. I intend to observe and reveal the nature of public vs private & of personal dispositions.

(Click on the home button to start)
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ASKING FOR PERMISSION

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DOCUMENTATION SAMPLE
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CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO SEE FULL

FIELD NOTES SAMPLE

PULLING FROM MAY 8

HOW MANY TWEETS + RTS IN A DAY (AS SHOWN IN THE MAIN TAB)
(1) 47
(2) 10
(3) 54
(4) 16
(5) 1
(6) 23
(7) 288
CATEGORY OF PINNED TWEET
(1) new, media, no thread
(2) N/A
(3) media, thread (chara playlists, wips)
(4) media, no thread
(5) N/A
(6) designated pinned, thread of rules, ways to reach via other social media
(7) designated pinned, thread (wips)
DISPLAY NAME
(1) "noctisismymalewife.com"
(2) !
(3) "RENGOJU YEAR" + emojis
(4) "tails"
(5) N/A
(6) emoji
(7) "TR SPOILERS"
FOLLOWER COUNT ON MAIN
(1) 1003
(2) 102
(3) 1515; 154
(4) 2803
(5) 202
(6) 148
(7) 1781; 259
GENERAL NOTES
> noted their ages, there was no correlation
> some of my friends are private mutuals with each other: (2) (5) (6) & (3) (7) ; (1) (4) exclusive
> mostly qrts (not shady), art rts, consuming pieces of media, routines, organizing your feed -- for yourself or others, accessibility
> (5) has more replies to other priv accounts than they do pure tweets
> (3) and (7) are artists
> some share digital, others share IRL events in their day
> some keep track of photo diaries
> twitter's "in case you missed it" section; global use, different time zones
> communicating and interacting at various points in time or in the day
> difficult to determine how people use private spaces, when there may exist other forms beyond twitter; distancing themselves from the app and opting for another?
> prefacing to me (my tweet), granting permission, but warning that they don't tweet often -- though the the results range
> language: english (primary), spanish, tagalog, chinese, arabic
> locations ranging from cali to nyc to uk to egypt to the philippines to hk to australia
> habitual: good morning/night tweets, work/8am tomorrow, lists and threads, bathroom escapades
> mentions of mental health, of insomnia, nd experience; a lot of it leads to making light of situations, joking, normalizing phrases

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SCANNED DOCUMENTS (opens up to google drive link, pdf of my notebook)

ANALYSIS SAMPLE
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With today’s observations, there was quite a variety when it came to how often people were online or using their private account. While some have been distancing themselves from Twitter, others have been incredibly active by livetweeting the media they’re consuming whether that be a webcomic or art, especially with the new influx of vertical art with Twitter’s cropping gone. The disparity between some of these accounts might also come from their dispositions and interests: the two most active on this day are in fact artists.
I also want to draw connections between how people present themselves (i.e. display name) and their first impressions (i.e. pinned tweet). How do people keep a level of anonymity on the internet? Do some feel no need to make rules or keep track of their older tweets and threads? I find that they easily show where people’s priorities lie.
Lastly, I’d like to draw a particularly interesting thread when it comes to who you are mutuals with... (3) and (7) are mutuals and artists, so it’s interesting to see how they shape each other. For instance, (7)’s pinned thread included a wips tweet inspired by (3). It’s simple but also fascinating to see how others organize material similar to yours. Lastly, (1) and (4) are lone and somehow with no mutuals in common with others in my list, they feel more isolated and perhaps feel no obligation to make rules or threads; both of them specifically have pinned tweets with a singular piece of media.
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