I think people interact socially by expressing themselves. We are inherently social creatures and our self-image is shaped by the judgement of others. To improve our own self-image, we try to influence other people's perception of ourselves.
Facebook is great (popular) because people have a blank slate for creating a public persona, then can instantly see feedback from other people reinforcing their created persona.
Right. One of the ways people earn social capital is by exhibiting creativity to peers. danah boyd has written a lot about the kind of identitive performance that social networks enable.
Facebook is great (popular) because people have a blank slate for creating a public persona, then can instantly see feedback from other people reinforcing their created persona.