ABSTRACT
To explore the evolution of Burkean identification in visual, digital spaces, this chapter examines the gazes and interactive practices invited by the structure and form of Pinterest, Instagram, and Tinder. The root of identification in post-industrial, digital social media driven by visual rhetoric is composed of shared conventional forms and procedural rhetorics rather than consubstantiality of essences and totemic substances. Bogost’s procedural rhetoric helps to account for identification on Pinterest, Burkean forms undergird identification on Instagram, and procedural rhetoric and forms come together on Tinder. Combined, these cases and theories help make sense of how identification is evolving in digital spaces.
