ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the process whereby data has been made accessible and usable by external applications that of application programming interfaces (APIs). It argues that these relatively obscure and unseen APIs, particularly those connected with social media, have significant implications for the conceptualization and development of digital identities in our contemporary world. However, the chapter focuses on social media and specifically two of the largest social media providers, that of Facebook and Twitter. It has begun to show that although both social media and applications have become significant technologies in the contemporary world, it is the connections between them and their users in the relatively obscure and unseen APIs that are of significance. To begin to understand transitions in identity, one must begin to understand and examine the underlying protocols and processes that invisibly direct and are directed by the relations between everyday practices and the technologies that are an increasing part of them.
