Abstract:
This thesis aims to advance our understanding of connectivity by exploring how ‘extreme integrators’—those who exhibit minimal distinction and high overlap between ‘work’ and ‘play’ aspects of their life—regulate, moderate and otherwise manage their regular and relatively high volume of communication media messages. Of particular interest is their sense of ‘agency’ or control of their perceived work and play boundaries. The sample for this study is drawn from social media creators, individuals who produce content for social media with the goal of amassing followers, which increases the value of their media streams. The research design is an exploratory case study, using semi–structured interviews, assisted and triangulated with diary studies, observations and interviews with a key–informant from the industry.
The results of this study portray unique aspects of how social media creators understand and manage connectivity. In particular, it was discovered that participants in this study used multiple virtual identities, namely their avatars, to extend their connectivity and virtual presence online. An avatar is an agent’s curated, technology-enabled proxy representation presented on a public, digital space that self-replicates its creator’s programmed messages. As such, my study finds these ‘avatars’ enable extreme integrators to manage their personal and professional connectivity (i.e., achieving requisite connectivity, while avoiding hyper- or hypo-connectivity), while maintaining valuable ‘visibility’ online. Ultimately, this study discover how managing online communication visibility through the use of connective avatars allows extreme integrators to achieve, or at least move closer toward, their ideal work-life balance.
