Social media and identity

Social media can have both positive and negative impacts on a user's identity. Psychology and Communication scholars study the relationship between social media and identity in order to understand individual behavior, psychological impact, and social patterns.[1][2][3] Communication within political or social groups online can result in practice application of those identities or adoption of them as a whole. Young people, defined as emerging adults in or entering college, especially shape their identities through social media.[1]

Social media platforms are represented as keys on a keyboard

Young adults

At the stage where a young adult becomes an emerging adult, individuals are especially influenced by social media. Psychologists study methods of self-presentation to determine how a user's patterns and media participation affects their own identity. Young adults, through media literacies, can also find their identity as a part of social group, such as feminists.[3] These studies are connected to building frameworks for educators on teaching media literacies.[1] Due to their fluency in media literacy, young people often contribute to these larger social identities through their networks, and unique style of communication when sharing information.[3]

Media literacy

The definition of media literacy has evolved over time to encompass the range of experiences that occur in social media or other digital spaces. Currently, media literacy includes being able to understand, apply, and share digital images and messages.[4] Educators teach media literacy skills because of the vulnerable relationship that young adults have with social media.[2] Some examples of media literacy practices, particularly on Twitter, include using hashtags, live tweeting, and sharing information.[3]

Self presentation

People create images of themselves to present to the public, a process called self presentation. Depending on the demographic, presenting oneself as authentic can result in identity clarity.[1] Methods of self presentation can also be influenced by geography. The framework for this relationship between a user's location and their social media presentation is called the spatial self.[5] Users depict their spatial self in order to include their physical space as a part of their self presentation to an audience.[5]

References
  1. Yang, Chia-chen; Holden, Sean M.; Carter, Mollie D. K. (2017-09-01). "Emerging adults' social media self-presentation and identity development at college transition: Mindfulness as a moderator". Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 52: 212–221. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2017.08.006. ISSN 0193-3973.
  2. Newman, Melissa J. (2015-12-01). "Image and identity: Media literacy for young adult Instagram users". Visual Inquiry. 4 (3): 221–227. doi:10.1386/vi.4.3.221_1.
  3. Gleason, Benjamin (November 2018). "Adolescents Becoming Feminist on Twitter: New Literacies Practices, Commitments, and Identity Work". Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 62 (3): 281–289. doi:10.1002/jaal.889.
  4. Davies, Randall S. (2011-08-11). "Understanding Technology Literacy: A Framework for Evaluating Educational Technology Integration". TechTrends. 55 (5): 45–52. doi:10.1007/s11528-011-0527-3. ISSN 8756-3894.
  5. Schwartz, Raz; Halegoua, Germaine R. (2014-04-09). "The spatial self: Location-based identity performance on social media:". New Media & Society. doi:10.1177/1461444814531364. hdl:1808/18944.
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