Special language and cultural codes are important aspects of new media. But beyond these codes, new media users tend to overlook the context of embodied, personal perspectives that affect assumptions and preconceptions. In the light of a semiotic perspective, this study explores media as an extension of identity and communication. An emphasis on Peirce's semiotic concept of secondness, the relationship between a sign and its meaning, helps to explain the inadequacies of code-based social network communication and new media's broader potential for identity and interpretations.