Boundary Maintenance

Definition

The act of maintaining boundaries in reality or the digital space, whether physically or intellectually. This can manifest as maintaining boundaries of one’s social class, and maintaining boundaries of one’s secondary self online,

Example

In a restaurant, boundary maintenance can easily be seen as those sitting near each other maintain their own space though they are physically proximal.

On Myspace, people understand how to maintain boundaries even when they are challenged by outsiders - for instance, people know what status or social class they are and seek to reproduce that over time, reinforcing their own social behavior and blocking others — and communication with others who are outside that behavior.