Facework on Facebook: The Online Publicness of Juvenile Delinquents and Youths-at-Risk

This article explores the strategic “facework” practices of an under-researched youth population. Based on interviews with male juvenile delinquents and youths-at-risk in Singapore, the article analyses their use of online social networking sites (SNS) using the Asian concept of “face.” These youths' online facework, geared towards gaining face, giving face, and avoiding loss of face, reflects the power dynamics underlying gang interactions which, when conducted over Facebook, become highly observable to gang members. The youths strategically appropriate technological affordances of Facebook such as posting status updates, comments, photographs, tagging, and viewable friendship networks for posturing, power aggrandizement, and reputation management. However, online facework can be a risky enterprise for these youths because of the possibility of context collapse and vulnerability to surveillance by the authorities and rival gangs, both of which they attempt to creatively circumvent.