12 thoughts on “Web 2.0 is having a great impact on forging youth identity through participatory culture”

  1. Mary,

    

I found your conference paper very interesting to read, as it focused on a lot of similar concepts and ideas that I wrote within my own paper, but at the same time took a very different approach towards online identity. It definitely gave me a few recommendations on things I could have mentioned throughout my paper, as well as new and fresh perspectives of ideas that I touched upon myself.

    Your paper was very well written and an overall pleasure to read. You touched upon important and relevant concepts that are directly affect youths in today’s context, such as participation, identity formation and new and improved spaces for learning and interacting with others.



    A point that I will mention about your paper is that I found your quote “the one who is stating that the internet has only negative consequences on youth is wrong”, as a little too abrasive and cold. It’s okay to have an opinion and take a particular stance, but there is a lot of evidence and research showcasing the negative effects the internet and social media is having on young adolescence and the youth generation. I think it’s important to acknowledge the other side of the argument and at least see that there is a no definitive right or wrong answer. Perhaps wording that sentence a little differently would have still gotten your stance across, but in a less overt and strict way, what do you think?

    I really resonate with what you said about youths building their identity through the nonstop scan for acknowledgement according to others. This is a common theme that I spoke about throughout my own paper, and one that is a common occurrence in the previous papers I’ve read also. It’s safe to say that young people are constructing their online identities in accordance to what other people think as well as their own personalities too. As well as this, I did enjoy your reference to YouTube and how the platform has helped progress the participatory culture of young people. I agree with this point as YouTube has definitely helped in bringing together people from around the world, and facilitate interactions in multiple forms (replying to comments, sharing and distributing content for others, etc). 



    The overall feel I got from reading your paper was this profound emphasis you placed on the internet in its formation of identity. Furthermore, how the internet can create a place for youths to learn and interact effectively with each other. It almost felt as though those two points are mutually exclusive. I have to ask then, for youths living in countries where there is limited internet access or they choose to not actively engage in online platforms, does that make their learning or interactions with others any less essential and important? I definitely agree with how the Web 2.0 can provide a good space to facilitate learning and interactions like never before, but you can still achieve sufficient and important interactions with people without the aid of the internet.

    Your paper has given me a lot to think about, and I would love to hear your thoughts of my critique.

    

Good job!

    1. Hello Elli,

      first of all, thank you and I’m glad to see that my conference paper has been interesting for you to read, and more, that you had commented on it. For my quote, it’s true what you said. I now realize that it was a little bit too direct to my point of view. Obviously, I tried to defend my point, that’s why maybe I formulated it in this way and I was wrong because we all know that the web 2.0 has also negative aspects for youth and everyone in general. I could have formulated it in another way, maybe “the one who is stating that the internet has only negative consequences on youth is not completely wrong however it does have a good impact as well.”

      As i said in my conference, the web 2.0 is having a very good influence on how it helps to build a certain identity and thus, increasing knowledge. I perfectly understand when you ask ‘for youths living in countries where there is limited internet access or they choose to not actively engage in online platforms, does that make their learning or interactions with others any less essential and important?’, i get what you want to ask me. The thing is that we will not get to a point that youth won’t get sufficient & important interactions with people without the aid of the internet but still the internet helps. If we take an example of someone shy, (this is just an example, it won’t be the same for everyone) being behind the screen will be easier to communicate for example. The internet provides space for those people to feel freer and at ease. Some people wait to be back home to get in front of their screen to feel this sense of belonging that maybe they don’t have in real life. so, I’m not saying that the point that you’ve raised is false, but it is helpful for some people. I hope that you get my point. If ever you think that I’m wrong, feel free to light my vision.

      I’ll have a look at your paper, maybe it will help me expand my way of seeing things and increase my knowledge on this topic.

      Thank you again!

  2. Thank you for receiving my feedback so well Mary, much appreciated. Yes, I definitely think the sound of the re-phrase version, you could have even said something like “the one who is stating that the internet only has negative consequences needs to acknowledge the potential benefits the internet provides for users too, and see that the possibilities this technology provides.”

    I agree with your point that the internet definitely does aid in the interactions between youths, yes. You could argue however the quality of these interactions, because meaningful conversations online can sometimes fall flat, and sometimes its more worth while to have these engagements in ‘real life’.

    Once again, I agree with your other point regarding people feeling shy and thus, use the internet and their screens as a means to talk to people. I wholeheartedly support that. It is important to not rely on the internet for all your interactions though, otherwise an individual will become too antisocial in their real lives and this could cause problems in the future. I like your angle and agree, but with every argument there will always be a counter too.

    Honestly, it was a great paper to begin with, good job!

    1. Once again, thank you for reading my paper and giving me more ideas. As you said, with every argument there will always be a counter. Each point you put forward are very good aspects in other circumstances, we can’t deny your points. However, without the internet, I will stay on my point of people would have been deprived of something very important in life. Of course, not everyone in this world has access to the internet but i would rather say that it would have helped them a lot. Life and technology keep on evolving, and this can be both a good as a bad thing. Many aspects could have been written down with more time. Future generations maybe will take us for fools as more technology are to come and development of identity will be more intense.

      Thank you once again for engaging with me on this topic. It was a pleasure.

  3. Hello Mary,

    You came up with some challenging points in this conference paper. I am glad you wrote on how institutions of the society gave individuals an identity of their own but on Social media they have the freedom to be who they want. Truly, the Internet is an interactive and innovative place for youngsters because they do things differently there. With the concept of the participatory culture, individual are exposed to every kind of people out there and on that specific platform they gain the liberty of expressing their views freely be it on religion, politics, movies and so on. What is more “beautiful” about social media is that, it is not possible for people to judge others on the basis of their caste, gender or nationality. People are free to state their opinions and experiences on different topics compared to face to face interaction where they may face discrimination because of their complexion, gender or age. Hence, web 2.0 made it easier for people to be a part of the outer world without being known. You did a fabulous job!

    Regards,
    Diksha.

    1. Hi Diksha,
      Thanks for reading my paper. That’s the thing about the web 2.0. Being behind your screen prevents a lot of things whereas being in the society itself, having face to face interaction for example. As you said, it removes that part of judgments to others. People feel freer than in real face to face interactions. Some people will maybe gain self-esteem after some online interactions, they can do things that maybe they wouldn’t do in real life, as for example post things freely while in class maybe in front of everyone wouldn’t have the nerve to do it. Youngsters should realize that the Web 2.0 may have some risk while surfing on it but if they know what/how/when to use it, they can gain a lot in the sense of knowledge.

      Thanks again

      ~Mary~

  4. Hi Mary,
    Great paper! I really enjoyed reading about this topic and this young people creating their own identity online is incredibly prevalent in today’s society. I agree that YouTube is a great platform to develop this online sense of community as well. I think finding different avenues for people to express themselves is incredibly beneficial and social media serves as a great tool for this.

    I also touched on this topic of social media and youth if you’d like to check it out! Thanks!

    https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2018Bentley/2018/05/07/twitters-hashtag-function-as-a-tool-in-developing-online-communities-and-social-movements/

    1. Hi Clare,
      Thanks for enjoying my paper. I really think that even if SNSs have some negative effects, it does help if we know how to use it.
      I’ll surely check your paper.
      Thank again
      ~Mary~

  5. Hey Stacy,

    I discovered your paper extremely intriguing to peruse. I like how your paper investigated both the positive and negative impacts that online systems and groups can have on one’s character. You have raised yet another fascinating point additionally down in your paper with respect to the privatization of online character between the more established and more youthful ages.

    You have raised some quite good arguments on your paper.

  6. Hi Mary,
    This was an interesting read. Your paper has made me think about what it must be like for youth today, growing up with very accessible social media platforms and technologies. You have argued for the benefits of online participatory culture really well, and I like the fact that young people can now access communities far beyond those in their physical world, but as you noted in your reply on my paper, sometimes the ease of sharing can land people in trouble. I wonder how aware young people are of the pitfalls of social media and sharing information. It will be interesting to see what developments will be made in the future, in terms of new technologies and platforms (will Facebook always be this dominant?) and whether it will become easier or more difficult to manage our online content.

    1. Hi Sandra,
      Thanks for having made the way till my paper. Of course, the Web 2.0 has come with a great innovation to people. As i argued in my own paper, it helps in creating identities, it helps with online relationships, it helps for knowledge, the list is way too long. However, we should not ignore the other side of the web 2.0. i recently commented on another paper, ‘Using Instagram risks young adult users to develop depression’ – ‘ As we use it in an everyday context, we don’t realize the negative effect that it can cause to people.’ It is really scary if we think well about it. There are more technologies to come and this really make me think way more about how will our future generation will grow with.

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