Social media pseudonymity: Affordances, practices, disruptions

Discussions around social media anonymity tend to centre on themes of freedom versus harm, as anonymity can facilitate open communication, but also be an element in harassment and abuse. This thesis argues that anonymity on social media needs to be reframed as pseudonymity, which is identity work, or the strategic presentation of the self. Social media pseudonymity involves relationships between platform affordances, user practices, and networked disruptions. By negotiating platform features and rules as well as others in their network, pseudonymous people contextualise and control their identity and communication.