Managing boundaries on online social networks as a competency: A digital cultural capital à la Bourdieu
On some online social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+, people connect with professional and personal contacts, and share work and non-work information (e.g., stats, photos, videos). This creates a collision of the different social circles, which otherwise, in everyday life, tend to be segmented. The consequences of this collision may be very beneficial or on the contrary very detrimental to interpersonal relationships and professional reputations. This paper analyzes boundary management between work and non-work identities on online social networks as a digital competency and a form of digital cultural capital à la Bourdieu (1979). First, we argue that boundary management between work and non-work identities can be understood as a competency. Second, we explain how the publicly mediated interactions on online social networks differ from direct and privately mediated interactions, which implies that the boundary management competency needs to be transposed in the digital social world. We then illustrate this digital competency by presenting a typology of four online boundary management strategies on online social networks. Last, we analyze this competency as a form of digital cultural capital that individuals incorporate. We argue that this digital capital acts as a symbolic capital that enables the development and maintenance of an individual’s social capital.