Profiles stand as the primary stage for presenting identity on Last.fm. The first clue to a user's personality is their avatar – the image displayed next to their activity all across the site – which sits at the top of the profile page. This image can be realistic (1), humorous (2), sarcastic (3), or anything else the user pleases (4).
Finally, the most personalized bit of screen real estate is the customizable portion of the sidebar near the top of the profile page. Where some users leave this blank or insert a short snippet of text, others create lengthy catalogues of photos, illustrations, animated images, dynamic infographics (i.e. top artists in the last 3 months, tag clouds), visitor counters, links to videos or other websites, lyrics, favorite bands, quotes, and more (example, another example). I think this portion of the profile directly speaks to the user's identity. This is the proverbial "blank canvas" of Last.fm, where individuals are free to express themselves. The representations of identity are incredibly diverse, so that some users put a great deal of thought into what they include. Profile embellishment does not necessarily correlate with community engagement however. The user Odessius, for instance, has only added a single button link to his profile page, but exhibits very high activity with 206 shouts and 1,323 forum posts. This provides just a glimpse of the complex nature of how users construct identity on Last.fm.
Last.fm offers a really interesting way of assembling identity – more than on any other website, it encourages our music listening habits to be primary markers of who we are. I've had really interesting experiences with the site myself; I've been a member for a really long time, and during my time as a member, I've had more than one primary computers. At one point, I got a new laptop and my old one went to my younger sister. Along with the computer, my Last.fm profile got transferred to my sister without my knowing. As she listened to her music, it registered as songs I listened to: annoying but nothing that terrible.
ReplyDeleteAnd still, because listening habits are the primary identity markers, and because you can't remove individual tracks from your charts, I started my entire profile over to keep from being seen as one who listens to Chris Brown, Chingy, Hellogoodbye, Plain White T's, etc.
We act completely irrational in order to curate an idealized version of ourselves when one particular characteristic is scrutinize – and Last.fm is a perfect example of this.
I like how customizable LastFM seems to be. It almost reminds me of MySpace, at least the music section of it. I agree with the comment above. People seem to take a lot of pride in their LastFM profiles just like most people carefully craft their profiles on Facebook. Each book or movie that someone likes on FB is meant to give off a certain vibe of cool or trendy. The same goes for LastFM. I doubt there are many guys putting/listening to Justin Beiber because they don't want to get judged.
ReplyDeleteI think Ishaq's example is very interesting. I remember him mentioning in class that he was very careful about what music he listened to in order to create a specific persona online. I feel like I would be the same way - there is a lot of music on my iTunes that I don't want people to know I have. Not necessarily because I am embarrassed by it, but because I don't even know what it is (I pick up those free downloads from Starbucks, for instance) and have not listened to the song long enough to determine if I would like it or not.
ReplyDeleteGenerally when I listen to music, it is to fit a particular mood that I am in. It would be interesting to see that documented for me, like on a site like last.fm. I could look back and see, "Oh I was really happy that day!" or "I must have been choreographing for a performance then!" or "Dang, I was not in a good mood when I listened to that series of songs..."