The many facets of me: Multiple account management on reddit

Donghee Yvette Wohn, Chien Wen Yuan, John Scott Siri

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this study, we examined why people have multiple accounts on Reddit and how they are used. Based on interviews with U.S. Reddit users (n = 21), we found that having multiple accounts was not always for anonymity purposes. While certain accounts were disposable to engage in stigmatized or deviant activities, other reasons for having multiple accounts included utilitarian purposes, such as storing content, organizing information, or gaming the system for attention. Users also maintained multiple accounts as a form of online impression management to keep distance between different online communities, avoid harassment, and experiment with different identities. Moreover, they helped with boundary regulation, such as disassociating online from offline identity and identity synchronization - linking identities across different social media platforms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 54th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2021
EditorsTung X. Bui
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages3057-3066
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9780998133140
StatePublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes
Event54th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2021 - Virtual, Online
Duration: Jan 4 2021Jan 8 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Volume2020-January
ISSN (Print)1530-1605

Conference

Conference54th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2021
CityVirtual, Online
Period1/4/211/8/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering

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