EXAMINING CONTEXT COLLAPSE IN SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS EFFECTS ON JOB-SEEKING UNDERGRADUATES IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

With social media checks being conducted on potential employees by employers and one’s identity being tied so closely to the content they post on social media, undergraduates seeking jobs may opt to curate what they share online to prevent jeopardising job opportunities. Utilising the conceptual framework of context collapse as posited by boyd (2002), this qualitative study aims to understand how undergraduates experience context collapse on social media, as well as the salient impression management and privacy regulation strategies they implement to navigate context collapse towards job-seeking goals. Data was collected via semi-structured, in-depth interviews and were coded through an a priori approach. The findings showed that undergraduates hold strong notions of privacy towards their SNS usage and that while maintaining a presentable online identity is important when jobseeking, the main cause for concern is nonetheless social status and acceptance. The findings from this study have significant theoretical and practical implications in understanding the effects of context collapse on undergraduates in Singapore, as well as how they manage context collapse.