Identity Development on Social Media: Challenges and Impacts

Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Identity Development

• Social Networking Sites (SNS) have been increasingly popular among young people since 2007, with 61% of 9-16 year olds having an SNS profile in 2010, and 68% in 2013.
• Facebook is the most popular SNS among children, as reported by the Net Children Go Mobile (NCGM) project in 2013.

Online Privacy and Personal Data Misuse

• Online privacy issues and Personal Data Misuse (PDM) can be detrimental to adolescents' developmental tasks, including autonomy, identity building, intimacy, and the development of a sexual self.
• PDM can be seen as a sub-set of cyberbullying or another type of cyber-aggression, sharing similarities with cyberbullying, such as the potential to reach wider audiences and the permanence of information.

Impact of PDM on Adolescent Identity

• Children's unpleasant experiences with online personal data misuse, such as hacked accounts and slanderous pages, can challenge their need for creating and maintaining their online identity in the context of peer relationships.
• PDM can affect adolescents' self-presentation and online impression management, which are key components of building identity.
• Privacy issues and PDM can influence the construction of personal, social, and collective selves, highlighting the need to revisit research agenda on identity development theories in the context of networked privacy.