Thesis (BA Communication Arts) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, June 2015

Facebook is a virtual social platform where a bourgeoning number of self-disclosure happens every day. This notion is emphasized as recent studies found that up to 80 percent of what we post we post in social media are mostly personal stories and information. Despite the question of privacy in an online environment, it becomes interesting how virtual platforms such as Facebook as communication context elicits self-disclosure. Hence, this study explored how user identification of Facebook as a social space affects user behavior within Facebook. It employed netnography which is the branch of ethnography that analyses the free behavior of individuals on the Internet as it aims to optimize users? own experience and how they treat personal information while participating in the rich online social space afforded by Facebook. The assumption is that user identification of Facebook as a social space afforded by Facebook. The assumption is that user identification of Facebook as a social space affects how people manage private information within the medium. The concept of self-representation is also considered as an important conceptual lens I understanding why an individual behaves the way he/she does while on the social space. Consequently, Facebook is no less than a cultural reflection and user behavior on the site is an indication that within that social space there exist a culture that utilizes self-representation as both the means and purpose of communication.