Internet Existence

Undergraduate Thesis - Interaction Design

Internet Existence is an exploration of growing up online. This project comments on 21st century identity formation through a curated representation of oneself on social media. Users, particularly at vulnerable ages, have overflowing opportunities to classify themselves not only with their followers and following, but with their likes, comments, and even profile views.

Social media has its own rules and norms, and often produces a cycle of performance and voyeurism of oneself and others. People often refer to the physical world as the “real world,” but a life lived online argues otherwise.

Isabelle used archived posts from her own tumblr accounts, as well as archives of Instagram posts, likes and comments, following lists, notes app entries, and even personal texts from her adolescence, between 2013 and 2016, to create content for the project.

︎︎︎ the archive
︎︎︎ sage’s instagram