Writing Lives Through Social Networking Sites: A Novel Mode for Catharsis

Abstract

Life Writing implies recording the various events of a persons life, either by that person or someone else. It includes autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, diaries and even personal stories shared on social media like blogs, Facebook pages, and WhatsApp groups. The current paper analyses life writings on social networking sites (SNS), focusing majorly on the popular facebook pages Humans of New York, and Humans of Bombay, as a means to attain catharsis.  Before the emergence of social media, it was quite difficult for lay men to narrate their life and bring it forth to the public sphere. However, the condition has changed tremendously with the social networking sites gaining ground in the recent years. The popularity of such platforms is employed by people in various ways. Some has utilized it to narrate various instances of their life and made it accessible for common people.  Humans of New York and its similar page in the Indian context, Humans of Bombay, have become quite famous among netizens, as sites where random people narrate their personal stories, which is made accessible to people round the world. There are more than 18 million followers for the Facebook page, Humans of New York, which was initially started as a photoblog by Brandon Stanton. Humans of Bombay is lead by a team and has around one million followers on Facebook. The present paper attempts an analysis of how the ordinary people have used the social networking platforms like Humans of New York and Humans of Bombay to narrate their life as a means to vent their feelings and attain catharsis.