Mediated Youth Cultures

The Internet, Belonging and New Cultural Configurations

A. Bennett, B. Robards, A. Bennett, B. Robards

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781137287014
• eBook ISBN: 9781137287021
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Antropología cultural y social

This book brings together thirteen timely essays from across the globe that consider a range of 'mediated youth cultures', covering topics such as the phenomenon of dance imitations on YouTube, the circulation of zines online, the resurgence of roller derby on the social web, drinking cultures, Israeli blogs, Korean pop music, and more.

Part 1
Online and Offline Identities

In the first part of this book, you will find four chapters that cohere around an investigation of young people’s identities, and how these identities – and the cultural practices that, in part, constitute identity – play out when mediated online. Key questions for Part 1 include:

• Are the identities young people perform online distinct from their offline identities, or is this binary between the online and the offline a false one?

• As young people’s experiences of transition or ‘growing up’ are increasingly mediated online, what are the implications of this sustained ‘digital trace’?

• What is visible online? What is invisible? How might we understand and control a sense of privacy in an era that appears to be characterised by sharing and visibility?

The internet has undergone many changes since scholars started to investigate the social interactions that are mediated online. The MUDs (multi-user dungeons) in Turkle’s (1995) and Dibbell’s (1998) work and the ‘virtual communities’ in Rheingold’s (1994) would likely appear very alien to many young people today. No doubt the web will look and be very different in another few decades, too. Even if sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are reinvented to retain users, how different might they be in 20 years? Despite this rapidly changing and evolving terrain, it is critical that we continue to ask questions about how identity works in these spaces. We do this not only so that our enquiries might help us better understand the lived experiences of young people using the internet today but also, as Goodwin et al. (Chapter 4, this collection) conclude, so that we can explore the dynamics that structure the societies in which we all live. The four chapters in the first part of this book, by Davis, Robards, Lincoln and Goodwin et al., work to frame the chapters that follow, setting up a series of themes about control, space, and ‘being’ online that this collection seeks to better understand.

References

Dibbell, J (1998) My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Henry Holt.

Rheingold, H (1994) The Virtual Community: Surfing the Internet. London: Minerva.

Turkle, S (1995) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Touchstone.

1

Youth Identities in a Digital Age: The Anchoring Role of Friends in Young People’s Approaches to Online Identity Expression

Katie Davis (University of Washington)

Adolescence has long been viewed in Western cultures as a period of individual self-searching. Newly aware of a world beyond their immediate sphere of experience, youth begin to contemplate what role (or roles) they will assume, how they will be recognised by others, and what contributions they will make to society. In our rapidly changing, interconnected, and technological world, the number of roles open to today’s generation of youth has never been greater. Digital media technologies, in particular, have expanded adolescents’ range of self-expression, as well as the potential audiences for those expressions.

In light of these changes, it is opportune to ask how today’s youth conceive of and approach identity expression in a digital era. Pre-digital accounts of adolescent development held self-consistency and coherence as the ultimate goals of identity development (Erikson, 1968, 1980). Is this conception of identity outmoded in today’s ever-changing, networked world? Are multiplicity and fluidity more fitting descriptors of youth’s 21st-century identities?

In this chapter, I present classical theories of identity from psychology and sociology and put them in dialogue with research on the nature of youth identity in a digital age. Early internet scholarship emphasised the variety of identities open to youth online, as well as the differences between online and offline identities. More recent scholarship calls this view into question. I engage this tension by drawing on findings from an empirical investigation that examined how youth approach identity expression, both online and offline. Specifically, I explore whether today’s adolescents strive for consistency and coherence in their personal identity (both online and offline), or whether they embrace a view of the self that is marked by multiplicity. Because peers are so important to the identity development process during adolescence, I also explore the extent to which consideration of their friends and peer group influences adolescents’ conceptions of identity and self-expression in a digital era.

The findings suggest that peers play a central role in youth’s mental models of online identity. Specifically, peers serve to anchor adolescents’ online self-expressions to a recognised offline identity. Some degree of exploration is permitted, but wholesale identity experimentation is generally regarded by peers with suspicion and disapproval. By placing these findings within a broader context of theory and research relating to adolescent identity, I demonstrate how and why youth seek – and ultimately achieve – a sense of consistency between their online and offline identities.

Study Background

Site

The research discussed in this chapter was conducted with youth attending secondary schools in Bermuda, a self-governing British dependent territory located approximately 650 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Bermuda’s economy is driven by international business and tourism, and the World Bank ranks the Island among the world’s most affluent countries. With a total area of 21 square miles divided into nine parishes, and a population of roughly 68,000, Bermuda is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Approximately 60 per cent of the Island’s population is Black and the other 40 per cent identifies as White or Other (Government of Bermuda, 2010).

While Bermudian heritage draws from many cultural influences, including traditions from England, Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean, the Island’s distinct cultural and socioeconomic characteristics and racial make-up prevent generalising the results from this study to other countries.

Sample

In March and April 2010, I collected survey data from a sample of 2,079 students (57 per cent female) between the ages of 11 and 19 years (M = 51.4 years) attending school in Bermuda. With approximately 2,600 students attending senior school in Bermuda, overall, the sample contained roughly 80 per cent of all senior school students on the Island. The survey sample included students from both of the public senior schools on the Island and five of the six private senior schools. Students were enrolled in grades 8 through 12 in the private schools and grades 9 through 12 in the public schools (the public senior schools begin at grade 9).

From the survey sample, I selected 32 students to participate in follow-up interviews in April–June 2010. These participants ranged in age from 13 to 18 years (M = 15.5 years), and represented grades 8 through 12. Twenty-one participants (66 per cent) identified themselves as Black, ten participants (31 per cent) identified as White, and one participant (3 per cent) identified herself as Other.

Data Collection

The survey was completed anonymously at school and included questions about students’ digital media ownership, online activities, motivations for going online, their feelings about themselves, their close friends and parents, and selected demographic characteristics.

In line with previous studies of youth’s digital media use (e.g. boyd, 2007, 2008; Hodkinson, 2007; Ito et al., 2009; Livingstone, 2008; Robards, 2010; Stern, 2007), I also conducted in-depth interviews with each of the 32 students in the interview sample. An interview gave participants the opportunity to describe what their digital media use meant to them and how it fitted into other aspects of their lives. It also gave them the opportunity to reflect on the nature of their self-expressions in different contexts.

Data Analysis

The current investigation focuses primarily on the interview data, and draws only minimally on basic descriptive statistics calculated from the survey data. The coding scheme used to analyse the interviews included both emic and etic codes (Maxwell, 2005). To create the etic codes, which represent the trained observer’s interpretations of participants’ experiences, I drew on literature relating to theories of identity as well as adolescents’ digital media use and processes of identity formation. Emic codes, which reflect participants’ accounts of their phenomenological (subjective) experiences, comprised unanticipated themes that emerged directly from line-by-line readings of the interview transcripts (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

To ensure that I applied the codes consistently and accurately, I enlisted a graduate student with experience in thematic analysis to code a portion of the transcripts independently. We met to discuss areas of alignment and misalignment until we reached consensus for each observation. Upon completion of coding, I used Nvivo 9 to examine dominant themes, across participants (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Identity During Adolescence

Erikson (1950, 1968, 1980) depicted identity as a central concern among adolescents. During this period, as they become aware of the values, norms, and roles of the broader society, adolescents begin to consider who they are and what they believe in. Their primary task is to integrate their childhood identifications and new social roles into an identity that is at once personally satisfying and confirmed by others. According to Erikson, this task is accomplished during a psychosocial moratorium, a period of suspended consequences during which one is free to explore various values and goals before making commitments to any of them.

Those individuals who resolve this stage of development successfully experience identity synthesis, which is marked by a sense of ‘self- sameness and inner continuity’ (Erikson, 1968: 50). In contrast, those who struggle at this stage experience identity confusion, which is characterised by a failure to craft a coherent and consistent picture of one’s self. Erikson’s focus on wholeness and continuity bears resemblance to an earlier theorist of the self, William James (1890), who emphasised the synthetic nature of personal identity.

Much of the empirical work conducted in the field of identity research draws on Marcia’s (1966) identity status model, an operationalisation of Erikson’s (1950, 1968) psychoanalytic views on identity and its development (Meeus, 2011; Schwartz, 2001). The identity status model focuses on the degree to which an individual has committed to a set of goals, values, and beliefs within the domains of occupation, religion, and politics. Each of the four statuses in the model differs along the dimensions of exploration and commitment.

A diffuse identity status represents low levels of both exploration and commitment. Someone with a diffuse identity neither spends time reflecting on, nor feels particularly committed to, a particular set of values or beliefs. This identity status parallels Erikson’s conception of identity confusion. A moratorium identity status represents high levels of exploration and low levels of commitment. The moratorium status resembles Erikson’s psychosocial moratorium, during which individuals explore their values and beliefs. An achieved identity status represents high levels of commitment that follow on the heels of high levels of exploration. Paralleling Erikson’s conception of identity synthesis, an achieved identity is attained after a period of deliberate reflection. Lastly, a foreclosed identity status represents low levels of exploration and high levels of commitment. Individuals with foreclosed identities hold strong commitments to values and beliefs that they have adopted, usually from their parents or other influential adults, without first exploring possible alternatives. The foreclosed identity status mirrors the muted way in which Erikson believed most young people experience the identity formation process during adolescence (Cote, 2009).

Beyond the Individual: The Social Nature of Identity

Marcia’s identity status model has been criticised for its narrow focus and its failure to take into account the social-contextual aspects of identity formation (Cote, 2009; Schwartz, 2001). Subsequent theorists have attempted to address these limitations in their models of identity. For instance, Adams’ (Adams & Marshall, 1996) developmental contextual approach to identity formation draws on Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological model of development, which posits that development is influenced by a series of embedded and connected environmental systems. In Cote’s (1997) identity capital model, the skills, beliefs, and attitudes that form part of one’s identity are seen as resources that individuals use to negotiate social resources. In both models, a person’s identity is fundamentally tied to his or her social context. Other theories of identity development focus on specific sociocultural dimensions of experience, such as race, ethnicity, and sexuality (see Cross, 1971, 1978; Helms, 1990; Rosenthal, 1992; Tatum, 1992; Waters, 1999).

In contrast to theorists in the psychological tradition, sociologists have generally placed greater emphasis on the social embeddedness of identity. Cooley (1902), Mead (1934), and Goffman (1959) described the self as a product of social interactions. Cooley’s ‘looking-glass self’ and Mead’s ‘generalized other’ underscore the self’s reliance on the surrounding social context. In his account of the ‘looking-glass self’, for example, Cooley explained that our view of ourselves depends in large part on how we imagine that others perceive us. Likewise, Mead used the concept of a ‘generalized other’ to argue that our sense of self arises when we consider ourselves from the perspective of the particular social system in which we are participating, such as the family or workplace. In a similar manner, in his dramaturgic analysis of social life, Goffman presented the self as a ‘collaborative manufacture’ between a performer and his or her audience. As such, the self’s existence depends on the recognition it receives from an audience. Rather than locating the self within the individual, these sociological accounts of identity place the self at the intersection of the individual and his or her social context.

New Contexts for Identity Development and Friendship Formation

The social contexts of today’s adolescents differ markedly from those of their predecessors. Digital media technologies have given rise to many new contexts for adolescents to express and explore their identities, from social network sites, cell phones, and instant messaging platforms, to blogs and vlogs, virtual worlds, and video-sharing sites. These platforms and technologies present new opportunities for adolescents to try on various identities that may bear little resemblance to their offline identity.

Early internet scholarship emphasised the unprecedented opportunities that virtual environments opened up for the express...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Youth, Cultural Practice and Media Technologies: Andy Bennett & Brady Robards
• Part 1 Online and Offline Identities
• Part 2 Engagement and Creativity
• Part 3 Bodies, Spaces and Places
• Glossary
• Index