We were interested in boyd's section on impression management and the idea of people writing their virtual selves into being. "Impression management," writes boyd, "is a part of a larger process where people seek to define a situation through their behavior." (page 12) She points out that, in a way, impression management over a site like myspace gives people more control by letting them carefully consider what they want to portray. She also mentions that this can easily lead to misinterpretations. To us it seems like many people believe that they really are given more control over their virtual selves, while ignoring the inevitable misinterpretations by parts of their social network. People often sculpt their profiles with a particular audience in mind. They may gain control of how a certain group of people understands their virtual self, while confusing or misleading other groups. People have intended audiences in mind while designing their profiles, but other groups still shape what they display. Some people seem to make profiles with the intended audience of acquaintances they don't know well or are just getting to know. But their closer friends still shape these profiles. They have to stay true to their offline selves to a certain extent (or make it clear that it's a joke) since their close friends are often the same online and offline.

-Steve C. and Alex! E.