Self-Performance in Digital Contexts: A Sociology of Social Display and the Construction of Visibility in Contemporary Algerian Society

Abstract

This article presents social display as a regular social practice through which individuals produce social images and construct desired identities in digital environments. By focusing on Algerian society, this study seeks to move beyond superficial explanations of self-presentation and to offer a sociological approach that considers the production of the image as a mechanism of social positioning. On this basis, the article draws on a set of sociological theoretical concepts, most notably Erving Goffman's concept of the presentation of self, Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic capital, and Axel Honneth's theory of social recognition. This article also seeks to examine how digital space reshapes patterns of social display in Algerian society and to identify the dynamics of the production of social image within the Algerian digital space.