Proponents say this type of networked lifestreaming facilitates connections to others, deepens relationships, and creates a source of real-time information. Sharing information through services like Twitter creates an “ambient awareness” of others, a sense of what friends and acquaintances are doing or thinking that builds up over a long period of time. This ambient awareness is akin to a sense of co-presence, even if the participants are not geographically proximate. At the same time, networked lifestreaming often creates anxieties about creating and maintaining one’s social identity in front of an audience, and the extra layers of social information can result in intense social conflicts and arguments colloquially referred to as “drama.” Drama is “performative, interpersonal conflict that takes place in front of an active, engaged audience, often on social media.” Drama can be a form of norm policing, where social media is used to call out community members who violate explicit or implicit social norms.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 553