Youth Are What They Post

Christoph Sawyer ­ ​ Christoph.Sawyer@purchase.edu Professor Sarah Sharp Computers and Culture Wednesday February 25, 2015 Youth Are What They Post Young people, for a long time, have held the power of deciding what’s cool and what’s not. This holds true today as they decide which social media platforms are hot and which are not. This power is a result of the popularity of social media and Networked Publics amongst youth, the number of youth online, and the amount of time they spend on those platforms. “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life”, “Look at us: Collective Narcissism in College Student Facebook Photo Galleries”, and ​ "You Can Form a Part of Yourself Online: The Influence of New Media on Identity Development and Coming Out for LGBTQ Youth" look at how ​ social media allows young people to gather virtually and how it’s used to help them develop and shape their identity.

In Danah Boyd’s report “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life”, it is explained that through the use of Networked Publics (specifically MySpace), youth are able to virtually test out identities, learn how those identities are interpreted by their peers/society, and are then able to intelligently shape an ideal representation of themselves. These identities are made by customizing profiles, curating friends, and creating comments. The central importance of profiles are explained using the term “Impression Management”; The way in which youth

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learn acceptable behaviors through the impressions they receive on their profile or by what they see on others profiles. This teaches the important social skill of learning through experience. This does have a downside as it means they lack a developed understanding of body language. On profiles, users publicly display who their friends(connections) are through a “Top Friends” list, which unfortunately creates nothing but pure social drama, something not all too uncommon for that age group.

Additionally, comments are public expressions of ones’ views and their feelings towards others. Networked Publics provide a place for youth to gather, free from adultism, giving them the power to make their own choices, as well as their own mistakes. They begin thinking about how their actions will be read by friends, how it will be read differently by family, and how society at large will interpret their actions. Networked Publics allow youth to learn through the virtual impressions what to say and how to express themselves in order to develop their intended identity.

Andrew Mendelson’s article “Look at us: Collective Narcissism in College Student Facebook Photo Galleries” examines how college students use Facebook to post photos online and in order to create their identity. The report is described as examining “the use of photo galleries as an instrument of self presentation and a means of visual autobiography.” The research found that photos are carefully selected to best represent oneself and ideals. The photos’ central theme is group subjects of individuals/friends.

Participants explained that having more photos was interpreted as having more friends and being more sociable. The report determined that photos were used to represent a student’s relationship to one another, this includes both platonic, romantic, and sexual

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friends/interests. Additionally it was found that a close physical proximity in a photo represented a strong relationship. The majority of photos were used by college students as a way to validate their own college experience, documenting their participation in traditional college rituals. Rarely were family members in any photos, this decision was intentional because students want to create an identity that demonstrates their independence from parents and childhood. Many of the photos were found to be shared publicly, this allows students to create an identity that can more easily be seen by all peers. It was also noted that in almost all of photos subjects were aware of the camera with intentional poses; It was found that after several years, students developed unique poses. Interestly, the photos lacked photographic techniques and it was concluded that photos were merely used to represent students’ identities and relationship towards each other. The report concludes that these photos are the result of kind of narcissism made up of self­reflection & self­actualization. While on the surface it may seem like narcissism, posting photos publicly on Facebook enables college students to visually define their identity and relationships.

Shelley Craig & Lauren McInroy’s report ​ "You Can Form a Part of Yourself Online: The Influence of New Media on Identity Development and Coming Out for LGBTQ Youth", highlights the benefits that digital media and social networks provide for LGBTQ youth in shaping their online and offline identities.​ One of the main benefits is that youth have access to resources and media that might otherwise be unavailable in their environment or potentially would be unsafe for them to seek out. The report follows a cycle of successfully coming out which consists of six stages: identity confusion,

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identity comparison, identity tolerance, identity acceptance, identity pride, and identity synthesis. As explained through the findings, these stages have the ability to be lived virtually, eliminating risks and dangers for many youth. The participants were categorized as avid consumers of digital media meaning they “spent more than five hours a week online and used a wide array of Internet­based media platforms” and that their “use of social media, music and video sharing, and blogging were especially prevalent.”

The quote below highlights one participant's experience in exploring their identity and coming out utilizing digital and social media: Online is like a virtual playground. It’s where we gather to share…[Because] online, you can take on any identity you want. You can pick any username, you can pick any gender, any sex, any age, any fake email you want and that opens up a host of opportunities to explore your identity more...And, when you were alone in the room away from your parents, away from the pressure of school, away from your friends, when you haven’t come out to anyone, when your brain is given that choice...You can create a whole new identity...you can do whatever you want.

This demonstrates how necessary it is for youth to explore identities, independent of their environment, in order to understand and develop their own identity. The findings concluded that youth were provided with access to resources, were able to explore their identity, find likeness, come out digitally, and were able to potentially expand their identities formed online into their offline lives. Overall, social media provides LGBT youth with a safe environment where they can understand and develop their identity, something that might otherwise be unsafe offline because of their environment.

By looking critically at the above three reports it is evident how young people benefit from being able to explore, develop, and shape their identity virtually with others like them.

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Bibliography

Boyd, Danah. "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life." ​ Youth, Identity, and Digital Media​ . Ed. David Buckingham. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2008. N. pag. Print.

Craig, Shelley L., and Lauren Mcinroy. "You Can Form a Part of Yourself Online: The Influence of New Media on Identity Development and Coming Out for LGBTQ Youth." ​ Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health​ 18.1 (2014): 95­109. Web.

Mendelson, Andrew L. "Look at Us: Collective Narcissism in College Student Facebook Photo Galleries." ​ A Networked Self: Identity, Community and Culture on Social Network Sites​ . Ed. Zizi Papacharissi. New York: Routledge, 2011. N. pag. Print.

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