Digital Youth Chapter 4: Constructing Identity Online PDF

L1: Digital youth chapter 4 Tuesday, November 5, 2024 10:42 AM Constructing identity online: identity exploration and self-presentation Users take advantage of technology to negotiate and present aspects of the self. Formulating a unified sense of self, in other words constructing a coherent and s...

L1: Digital youth chapter 4 Tuesday, November 5, 2024 10:42 AM Constructing identity online: identity exploration and self-presentation Users take advantage of technology to negotiate and present aspects of the self. Formulating a unified sense of self, in other words constructing a coherent and stable identity, is an important adolescent developmental task. Identity is a complex term and differences around how identity is construed across psychology, sociology, anthropology and philosophy and different cultural contexts. Moshman's definition: an identity is, at least in part, an explicit theory of oneself as a person. Answering the questions, who am I, where do I belong and where am I headed? Identity during Adolescence Erikson: adolescence is a period when individuals have to accomplish the task of constructing an identity of the self or the ego identity. Creation of an ego identity represents the integration of existing accumulated experience, skills, talents and opporunities offered by various social roles into one compact and complex identity for the individual. Vocational decision making, ideological values and sexual identity were the bases of ego identity. Adolescents are in a period of psychosocial moratorium, they can explore alternative roles and identities. Those who do so are more likely to be satisfied with their identities and adolescents' reflections about themselves, their characterisics and social position helps them explore and construct their identity. Elaborated by Marcia: identity is a process, she developed an approach to measure an adolescents identity status. Exploration and commitment are key to identifying where an adolescents was in identity development. Exploration occurs when an adolescent is drawn into the process of choice and decision making over the issues of relationshiops, religion, life style or jobs. A process of active search and discovery. Commitment is the acceptance of a certain foal and life program, entails individual taking responsibility for his or her life choices and action. For Marcia the presence and/ or absence of the core dimensions of exploration and commitment yielded the following four distict states of identity or identity statuses: 1. Foreclosed identity: charecterized by the presence of commitment and the absence of exploration. Although the adolescent is satisfied with his/her sense of identity, it is drawn from authority figures and the youth may tend to be rigid and conformist. 2. Indentity diffusion: a state where the adolescent experiences neither crisis nor commitment and is not actively exploring his/her sense of self. Youth who are in a state of identity diffusion are easily influenced by peers, and may often change opinions and behaviour in accordance with group expectations and norms 3. Moratorium: the adolescent experiences a crisis about his or her identity but does not commit to a particular sense of self. Akin to a time-out he or she may experience states of anxiety and doubts, explore and try out new roles without committing to them, and experiment, discover and explore new values and norms. 4. Identity achievement: both crisis and commitment are present. The adolescent experiences a crisis about his or her identity, explores and experiments and eventually commits to a particular sense of self, accepting the responsibility that goes with such a commitment. Youth in this stage of identity achievement are believed to have a positive self-image, are flexible and independent Eriskon & marcia: exploration is key to the development of a healthy identity during adolescence. Identity as developmental task may be more important to older adolescents. Search for self is related to pubertal status, family variables (family functioning) and family interaction patterns and communication styles and friends and peers (more likely to try out new attitudes and behaviors in their company and depend on them for support and feedback, as mirror). Mutual friends are similar in ego identity as well as in attitudes, haviorus and intentions related to idendity, problems with friends in negatively associated with adolescent identity trajectories. Internet provides an ideal venue for identity exploration. McAdams: the development of identity is an ongoing and fluid process, during which identity is adapted to current postmodern conditions. Identity is never established, but a process of narration that occurs in the context of several mulitple selves. Individuals on the brink of adulthood construct narratives or dynamic internal life stories about themselves and these stories form the basis of their identities. The narratives draw from the adolescent's past, present and future and contain themes related to agency (achievement and mastery) and communion (interrelations to others). Aspects of identity: personal, self-assesment and self-reflection, who am I, I am myself social, feelings of inclusion or beloning to one's social context 'where do I belong, what I am part of' Gender, important in adolescence and emerging adulthood, m and f different social roles and the identity process they undergo can vary according to these social roles  Ethnic, constructed during adolescence: an enduring fundamental aspect of the self that includes the sense of membership in an ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings associated with that membership. Online self-presentation and virtual identity Virtual and online identity can take up two different meanings: Identity is an identification and self-presentation (or representation) of the individual on the Internet. Derived from the fact that individuals have a virtual representation rather than a psysical precense. A virtual respresentation is a cluster of digital data about a user in a cirtual context, nickname, email, online history and status, the users face and body within that particual digital context. Individuals can have different digital representations in different or the same online context. (multiple e-mail adresses or multiple avatars) Psychological sense, a sophisiticated conceptualization of an individuals online self or persona. The second construal of virtual identity comprises the thoughts, ideas, visions, or fantasies that users attribute to their virtual representations. It is the transfer, perhaps unconsciously, of the thoughts, emotions, and other aspects of their self to their online selves. Virtual identity is also comprised of personal and social aspects. Personal virtual identity relates to “who I am” as a person in a particular virtual environment, or more precisely, to a users’ representation in Adolescent’s Online Identity Construction 63 that virtual environment. Social virtual identity characterizes where an individual belongs in a particular virtual world, the online community or communities that he/she may be a part of, the individual’s status within those communities, etc. The personal identity attached to this avatar could include superiority, reinforcement of the self, and improvement of self-esteem. The social identity of this role could entail a leadership position among a group of players – it may be connected to the acknowledgment and admiration elicited from other players and a sense of responsibility for other players and for the success of common campaigns Although both meanings of the term online identity are valid, research on adolescents’ online identity construction has mostly dealt with digital representation and self-presentation Adolescent's online identity construction HIerna gewoon gelezen want bijna alles is belangrijk, dus tijdens studeren dit hoofdstuk goed doorlezen. The potential anonymity and realtive safety of the internet may allow for experimentation, and provide the perfect benue for youth to test aspects of their identitites. Online self-presentation: the different ways by which users present themselves to other online users. Difference between anonomus platforms and less anonymous but private contexts. Inidividuals have considerable choice with regard to which aspects of the self to reveal, which to highlight, aspire to. Tools for online self-presentation Nicknames (usernames) users'online screen names mirrored their offline selves. Sexualized nicknames were wished to convey their interest and intentions to engage in sexualized activities. Personalizes nicknames, hobbies A/s/l code: age sex location, ie 16.M/CA. Dependent on country of origen and language. Avatars: adjustable, motion-enabled graphical representations. Adolescents and young adults within MMORPG games have a greater tendency to identify with their avatars than adults. More room for identifying with virtual representation. Photos and videos: upload in blogs 60% uses photos Young people take advantage of the tools available within a particular online context for explration and self-preservation. Adolescents users seem to go out of their way to present their offline selves and not stay disembodied. Identity expression and self-presentation in blogs and homepages Teens identity development seemed to be expressed in terms of decisions regarding the style or choice of site (Livingstone 2008) Younger teens take more time decofating their profiles and don't want to be on the same site as adults. They present their identities more often. Sevelral constructions of personal, social and gender identity concluded that: Myspace gives emerging adults a tool to explore possible selves and express ideal selves that they may want to become Increased pressure on young women to objectify their sexuality while also preserving their innocence may be a confusing and detrimental influence on their development. Online behavior and identity status Potential role of the internet for individuals in the four statuses proposed by marcia Foreclosed identity: allows for experimenting more than they would dare in reality. More frequently stated that they behaved according to parents' expectations and attitudes in virtual worlds. Online and virtual identities could bevome a forerunner for changes to come in their offline identities when they feel they can experiment there. Diffused identity: easily influenced and onten change views and behaviours. Low self-confidence ans problems in interpersonal relationships. Speculate that: online can become safe haven, they can learn to express and break group norms without fear of group sanctions. Little empirical support. Hard to measure, includes charecteristics of all the statuses and low reliebility. Moratorium: weak commitment. More frequently break rules and norms that are common in offline life, more frequently change their self online vs offline. Are more open online and pretend to be better than they are. Using the internet to clarify their values and attitudes. They use the internet for openness and exploration more ofter compared to indivudals in other identity states. Identity achievement: MAMA cycle: phases of moratorium and identity achievement are repeates one after the other. Online context could provide opportunities for safe experimentation with identity. More frequently testing or diverging from the norms ans rules of everyday life. Online contexts afford oppourunities for more exploration and fewer commitments. May disinihibit users and increase the portential for self-disclosure. Some online chatrooms come without commitment. Ethnic identity online Ethnic identity is believed to be contructed during adolescence. 19% change of exposure to negative remarks directed at a racial group in a monitored chat room compared to 59% in unmonitered. Racial or ethnic slurs also increased, indicating that in the absence of social control, negative inter-group attitudes may emerge and become prevalent. Also positive instances of discussion Adopting and enacting race-related identities are the primary means by which they learned about race ant ethnicity online. Reported using more than one role: discussants (46%), witnesses (41%), targets (41%), friends (28%) [built relationships with diverse ethniv group and gained knowledge from this experience, racial oppression and racial role taking ], sympathizers (18%), and advocates (15%). Facebook safe to upload traditional pictures, but face to face less safe. Facebook can also help co- construct traditional cultural constructs. Identity experiments and pretending Popular misconception that adolescents pretend to be someone else Turkle (MUD's pretending and role playing is normative) Greatest proportion of pretenders are adolescents. 12-20 yo, search for identity is on the forefront in czech republic In america this was rare, they connect real and virtual worlds and clarify their offline values and attitudes in the real online world. Dutch youth 50% used the internet for online identity experiments, self-exploration (see how others would react) social compensations (overcome shyness) and social facilitation (help relationship formation) 9-12 pretended to be someone else most often, pretending to be older, a real life acquintance, flirtasious or fantasy person. Youth often labels itself older, so hard to say if theis is true identity experimentation, Online pretense and lying --> most likely in chat rooms. Rarely ly on blogs, mostly about: pernership, family situation, appearance, sexual experience. Blogs and identity experiments is uncommon : they lie die emellish their lives, as they would also in offline lives. Virtual identity Thomas 2000: Virtual identities are also constructed through the feeling of belonging to a virtual group, slang and technical knowledge, skills. Childrens and adolescents virtual identity is flexible, changes in accordance with current cultural icons, fasion, music and consequently help test various self-images. Older adolescents 16-19 sense of belonging was the greatest. Turkle: creating virtual identities can help individuals overcome difficulties in their real lives Reid: fragmentation of identities in onlien contexts may prevent the development of a flexible and complete personality. Virtual relations lach continuity: easy to leave and escape may become a major strategy for dealing with a problem. May become siddociated and inflexible, negative influence on the individual. Research necessary to determine hinder or help Conclusions Much of their online identity construction entails identity exploration as well as identity expression and self-presentation: presenting and testing aspects of their self or identity within a community of peers, modifying and testing parts of their self for feedback from peers, creating narratives about themselves, and searching for partners or friends. At least for adolescents, extant research calls to question the view of online environments as one where people slip in and out of different identities all the time, supposedly bending their gender and feigning personas that are older, younger, nicer, more attractive, and taller. Adolescents only rarely pretended on the Internet, and when they did pretend online, they were more likely to do so in contexts, such as chat rooms, where anonymity was possible. Youth seem to construct and co-construct their personal, social, gender, and ethnic identities in online environments as they are faced with the crucial questions of who they are, where they belong, and what they want to do with their lives. But these are only preliminary findings and we need more research to understand how young people’s online living, and the virtual identities that follow from such living may impact their development in the long term. For instance, although we know that adolescents’ use digital tools for identity construction, we do not yet understand the influence of their online self-presentation and identity expression on their development. One issue is the relation between digital contexts, users’ online self-presentations, and users themselves. There is a gap or a distance between users and their online representations, which may separate them from the actions of their online representation. Although the sparse evidence to date suggests connections between users’ online activities and their offline identity status, we need more research to understand how adolescents’ virtual selves (e.g., their avatar in a game, or their Facebook self) influence their identity development. Addressing these questions will help us understand how youth formulate their sense of self as they negotiate changing and evolving digital contexts