Sage Lambert Graham

            Recent research on politeness has begun to re-examine the pioneering works of Lakoff (1973), Brown & Levinson (1987) and Leech (1983), in an attempt to expand these early frameworks and create new, more expansive, model(s) for examining politeness as a social phenomenon.  These newer frameworks allow for a more dynamic construction of (im)politeness while also getting at the question of how politeness, impoliteness and appropriateness (identified as ‘politic’ by Watts, 2003 and Locher & Watts, 2005) intersect with one another in any given context.
            Online interactions provide a fascinating venue in which to apply these new frameworks for examining politeness and relational work (Locher, 2004).  In an online setting, the norms and expectations of the medium itself have a profound influence on the interactions that take place there.  As noted in Graham 2007 and 2008, in e-communities, norms for interaction within a given electronic Community of Practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1999) merge with the norms of (polite) interaction within the computer medium to create a unique set of expectations for what constitutes polite behaviour.  While deviation from these norms frequently results in conflict, the (active) renegotiation of norms of politeness in the e-community (through that conflict), give group members the opportunity to (re)negotiate their identities.
            The current study examines strategies individuals use to construct their online identities and the ways these strategies intersect with perceptions of politeness in electronic interactions.   Using data from an online MySpace discussion board devoted to discussion of fictional works, I build on McAdams’ (1993) concept of ‘imagoes’ or idealized concepts of the self in investigating the ways that identity construction and perceptions of politeness and appropriateness intersect in online interactions.  Results indicate that there is a delicate balance between conforming to online expectations for behaviour while juggling the various imagoes that emerge within the computer medium.