The essay takes a deep look into how online social networking, made popular on the internet over the last years, arouses practices of identity selfconstruction by its users. Focusing on the use of Orkut website, mostly by Brazilian teenagers and young adults, this study discusses the notion of identity through the history of self-referred narratives. In this aim, it takes the hypothesis that, although narratives of the self were outlined in different periods in Western history, they ascended in the emerging of modern times - when the ideas of individuality and intimacy appeared. After considering these prior facts, this essay presents the consequences of computer-mediated communication in everyday life during the last decade. Then, online social networking is analysed through its appeals to identity performance and customization. The research deals with how participation and exhibition – two factors which plot the platforms of Web 2.0 - set a tension between the notions of public and private, as well as encourage new social behaviours, values of alterity and shared practices of surveillance in the digital context. The research method was based on participant observation, information analysis and interviews with Brazilian young users of online social networking.