Abstract
In recent years, social media have become a major part of our lives and it has impacted our ways of socializing both in the real world as well as the online communities that are present. With advancement in Web 2.0 and the growing popularity of social networking sites amongst teens, users are conformed in creating online identities that may resemble or largely differ from reality. How the youth participate and represent themselves on social media platforms reflect valuable information on their identities and peer-to peer sociality (Danah, 2007). Using the works of Goffman’s theories of social performance, this study looks to analyze the behavioral impacts on the youth on the virtual creation of identity through social networking sites. This research fits within the streams of Identity in communities and networks. This essay will point out certain behavioral traits of virtual identity creations supported by the works of Dannah and Pearson.
Behavioral impact of youth on social media.
Over the years, social media have gained popularity amongst users of all age groups. Nowadays, one can find almost any type of information online within a matter of minutes. As a result, sites are becoming more user friendly and generating more traffic. Social networking sites are still growing in popularity. With it, also comes the amount of time the user spends on those sites. Now, the availability of accessing these sites have become much easier. Users can access almost any social media sites via their mobile phones rather than their personal computers (Pew Research Internet Project 2013). Social media has allowed for information to be carried out far and wide. Communication is by far the most common social media tool. On sites such as Facebook or Twitter, users can share comments, upload photos or videos or even establish relationships with other users. These platforms can also be a way to collaborate with other users. For example, Wikipedia is edited and constantly updated and reviewed by users. Blogs are platforms where users can again collaborate and share opinions or review movies, restaurants, products and so on. Social media also gives its users the ability to upload videos and encourage participatory culture amongst audiences especially on YouTube. In a way social media touches upon vast areas. It is developing at a fast rate and has got a large portion of the society hooked up on it. With the concept of users staying connected with their online community, a phenomenon has risen wherein users can create their ideal identity online. Today’s teens spend a lot of time online connecting with friends and sharing photos or expressing their views over matters that they are concerned about. To narrow down this vast spectrum, I have decided to carry out the research on the behavioral impacts of the youth on the virtual creation of identity through social networking sites.
The teen demographic has been chosen as an area to research since this group is currently growing alongside social media and they spend an enormous amount of time on those sites. As a result, certain social networking sites such as Instagram and YouTube will be considered to better illustrate the arguments made. Most teens engage with a form of social media without realizing it. They tend to get into a habit of maintaining an online social presence rather than a physical one. The teen demographic can be observed as a group that is moving more towards being concerned of online friends rather than face-to-face interaction. It can be argued that there are some positive effects of spending time on social media, however, there are equally as many dangers with social networking sites. Teenagers, find it constantly hard societal pressure on them. They are constantly told to behave a certain way or function a certain way which is regarded acceptable for the society. However, online, they have the freedom to create an identity for themselves and likewise, connect with other people with similar tastes. Behavioral traits that are created online can be beneficial for some people, but the dangers outweigh the benefits. Teenagers find it necessary to be the best versions of themselves when sharing part of their lives online. Ironically, social media platforms in a way have put more pressure and restrictions on teenagers to fit the ‘’virtual community’’.
As stated above, this essay will be supported by using examples of Instagram and YouTube. While the option of researching on Facebook was also available, it was decided to stick to these two mentioned sites as these are networking sites which have allowed teenagers to post pictures or videos on a professional level, thus having the pressure that everything that is posted must be perfect. Instagram is a free photo and video sharing service (Instagram, 2018), that allows users to post, edit photos and videos, write captions, like and comment as well as share posts. This site allows users to upload their best photos and videos which are esthetically pleasing to the Instagram community or their audiences. Instagram can be accessed via personal computers or mobile phones. This means that an Instagram user is always connected with the application. Users as young as thirteen years old use the site (Instagram, 2018), which is the stated age limit for users on this application. However, there are users who are younger than the age limit and have accounts on Instagram. As of 2017, there are 800 million active users worldwide (Statista, 2018).
A feature of Instagram is that it functions as a window for the user’s daily activities. Users post photos or video clips of what they are wearing, eating, going to and so on. Moreover, Instagram has a feature that allows users to post stories which disappear after twenty-four hours. These stories can be perceived as the different activities that this user has done throughout the course of the day. Users can comment and like photos, which for most users like posting on Instagram. Having an online environment where one can comment on photos, allows its users to develop certain behavioral traits. Users follow other ‘’Instagrammers’’ and try to level up their photos or videos to them.
YouTube is a web 2.0 platform that allow users to upload videos which can then be streamed by viewers. The audience have the option to like, dislike or comment on videos. The idea of being able to share opinions and comments open a new virtual community where the viewers can communicate with other people from around the world who share the same interests, be it in music, politics and so on. With the concept of creating channels, certain people have made a career out of YouTube. Commonly known as Youtubers, these people create content and post them on the social networking site. They in return generate money by advertisements. When someone clicks on an advert or watches 30 seconds of it, the advertiser pays the Youtuber. Famous YouTube channels of the moment include PieDiePie, Smosh, Niga Higa, Jenna Marbles, Superwoman and so on. These content creators have between 15 to 55 million subscribers (McAlone, 2017).
YouTube has over one billion users worldwide (YouTube, 2018). It is also one of the most diverse communication and social platform and is available in 88 countries and 76 languages. On average, teens and young adults spend 34% of their video watching time on YouTube compared to other formats such as TV, Netflix and so on (McAlone, 2017). This research has involved exploring this social networking site as to understand what kind of behavioral identities can be identified to the process of maintaining a brand on YouTube.
Considering the context of Instagram, some people may say that social media platforms are elaborate forms of popularity contests. Researches have showed that adults and teens use them differently. The youth use Instagram merely as a tool to self-express and solely focus on photos that will generate attention. Their posts on Instagram mainly reflect their emotions or use hashtags to attract more followers. Teenagers want large audiences and more of a way to emphasize on the popularity status amongst their group. Internet celebrities have risen from amassing large followers and posting consistently to maintain their brand. As a result, other teens are also pressured to follow the same. We live in the era of the ‘’perfect selfie’’. Teens spend a generous amount of time in taking the perfect photos at the perfect places and find captions that will surely boost their brand. In doing so, most teenagers opt to alter or create new identities that will allow them to gain more likes and followers.
This identifies that teenagers can decide how they want to be represented to the online community. This can be in the form of their avatars which is usually the new identity they have created on their chosen online platform (Pearson, 2009). Pearson (2009), argues that these behavioral changes exist in the imagination of users. This means that, the user merely uses social networking sites as tools to project and constantly improvise or revise their online presence. It is also observed that by doing this, users meticulously plan and stage what their identities should look like when they’re presented to the virtual community.
Teenagers can alter or create new identities through their choices of usernames, photos and online behavior while communicating with other users online. Instagram has become an online community where only the best photographers and only accounts which have a massive following can thrive. Teens find it needful to step up their photography skills just to be able to get likes and followers. It has also become a dangerous addiction where teens are willing to spend any amount of time just to get the right photo which may ultimately bring in some new followers. They are obsessive over the idea of portraying how they want to be perceived online and in return they are drifting away from the real society. The time teens spend on Instagram is roughly 25 minutes per day. This translates that teens spend an average of 8 months using Instagram in their lifetime (Asano, 2017).
With YouTube, behavioral traits are quite varied. The pressure of maintaining an online brand and personality is even greater than that of Instagram. Youtubers have a reputation at stake. They are just like celebrities but the only difference is that they get to choose how they want to be perceived. Youtubers spend countless hours in creating videos and understanding their audiences’ tastes. Therefore, it is crucial for a Youtuber to maintain good quality videos on their channels. Youtubers at the beginning would film their videos with a simple video recorder. Today, youtubers have professional teams, use industry standard equipment and shoot at well know studios and production houses. YouTube videos have become extremely professional even if a lot of viewers do not get to witness what goes on behind the scenes of shooting a YouTube video. YouTube is the largest video platform and can shape society.
YouTube gave rise to the term ’Vlogging’. It is the process where users video blog their experiences and post it on YouTube rather than writing and posting it on a blog. Studies have showed that vloggers and their viewers can have a sense of connection between the two parties (Wesch, 2008). Certain YouTubers have had to completely change identities or renew themselves to able to appeal to an audience or to generate views. Moreover, makeup tutorials and beauty channels have created a new environment where viewers are expected to follow the same. Teenagers fit the right targeted audience to follow these trends of what is popular now. Teenagers behavioral traits can be attributed to certain negative events that can shape long lasting effects. In 2014, a United Arab Emirates court convicted 8 people over a documentary video. The video was aimed at teenagers living in the UAE and insinuated a gangster culture that is supposedly rising amongst teens. The matter of concert was that the video was perceived as defaming the teenage demographic and fear of disturbing the state security (BBC, 2013).
Teenagers have made social networking sites as a place to grow and develop according to how they want. Social class and race play a very little role in determining which sector of the demographic use these sites (Dannah, 2007). Poor teens are also more likely to join the virtual community of Instagram and Youtube as their wealthier counterparts. However, behavioral traits in identity change highly depends on what the teens do online. Those who use social networking sites in schools, use them as a more asynchronous method to connect. Those who use them continuously at home, spend more time modifying their identities, surfing the web and maintaining their online presence.
Self-identity is easily changed amongst teens. Spending time on social media such as Instagram, can lead to uses feeling jealous or insecure. Identity is then evaluated through the number of likes, followers or subscribers that have been received. As a result, teenagers spend a lot of time online to modify or create new identities that will be appealing. It is therefore really important to recognize the power of social media pertaining to how it can alter identities amongst teens and that it should not be allowed to define who we are.
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