MSN display names and personal messages and human self-identity: In perspectives of speech act theory and symbolic interaction theory

MSN Messenger was focused in this study because of the large number of MSN users and some features of the application. MSN allows users a detailed display name and personal messages with their application which can allows online users to create and present their self-identity. Speech act theory (Searle, 1979) and symbolic interaction theory (Mead, 1934) were employed as theoretical lens to analyze this phenomena. Content analysis and online interviews were employed to analyze the display names and personal messages. A total of 702 MSN display names and 1,109 personal messages from 286 worldwide MSN users were coded and analyzed. About a half of display names were names of the speaker. The rest of display names and a majority of personal messages were types of speech acts: expressive, assertive, directive, quotation, commissive, and declarative speech. The finding showed that participants expressed themselves through MSN display names and communicated messages with others via personal messages. According to online interviews. MSN users tried to express their self-concepts but did not try to create or manipulate self-identity that different from their real life. Most things they wrote were based on realities. MSN display names and personal messages were used as a critical tool for social networking. Participants communicated and learned about other people from this media. Most American participants used display names to tell who were saying. In contrast, Asian participants created and wrote about many things to express their self-concepts.