• Engine you are a biology professor and invited to attend a fashion show. Will you freely express your idea about the show, or shame to say it because of your “mask” (biology professor)?

Analysis Problem

• Observer-Expectancy Effect

• Create a permissive social environment, let participants know whatever they say is being accepted/expected. Even saying something unaccepted by mainstream culture, they don’t need to take any risk of being judged.

HYPOTHESIS

• This thesis investigate the nature of social masks (culture symbols/existing objects that have personification) and present the hypothesis that masking can be used for constructing multi-layers representations on social networks.

• Such hypothesis can let people freely post personal ideas on social media, self-explore(find out their potential capacity) and promoting innovation, instead of facing the stress of needing to manage a reputation that meet social expectation.

Give him a mask,

and he will tell you the truth.

• “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde

• So the idea of social mask is being real you, instead of a persona that satisfy the demands of a situation or an environment.

• It gives you freedom of expression. I don’t talk in person, I talk in people.

What a “mask” can be?

• A culture symbol

• Armor

• Identity

• Mirror

• Idol

Supporting ideas

• Psychological and Sociological Literature

• Ethnographic Research

• Case Study

• Experiments

Psychological and

Sociological literature:

• Beneath the Mask: An Introduction to Theories of Personality - Christopher F. Monte & Robert N. Sollod

• Public Display of Connection - J Donath & Danah Boyd

• Reflections on Friendster, trust and intimacy - Danah Boyd

• The Truth of Promise of Social Media Drowned Out by Self-promotion - Phil Johnson

Case Study (by interviewing people’s experience)

• Myspace

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Tumblr

• Instagram

Ethnographic Research (Main purpose: obtain a deep understanding of people and their culture)

• Target Audience: 18-25, use social media as a main way to social, spend more than 2 hours on social media per day

• Extreme user: Otaku

• Interviews:

• - Extreme User Interviews: Ask them to evaluate their experience of using different accounts.

• - Draw Social Maps

• - Favorite Character: Ask people their favorite character, and how these persona influence them? Does these character they successfully present online? In what way? If not, why?

• - Bad Experience

• - Conceptual Landscape: their expectation for social media

Experiments

• Aim: Find the Nature of Mask

• Role-playing Game (by video):

• -Let people play opposite roles(models and photographer; police and military; student and faculty;), then switch the roles.

• Test if they can influenced by the role/character.

1.IntroductionA. Design ProblemB. Hypothesis

2.Theoretical Background and DefinitionA. History of MaskB. Contemporary Definition:C. Phenomenon of Masking

3.Interviews and Experiments:A.Target Audience:B.Case Study:a. Myspace/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Instagramb. Merits and FaultsB.Extreme User Interviews:a. Experience of Using Mask(s)b. Conceptual Landscape/Hidden DesireC.Role-playing Games:D.Conclusion

4. Reference

Outline