{"id":212,"date":"2019-05-05T20:35:46","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T12:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/?p=212"},"modified":"2019-05-05T20:35:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T12:35:46","slug":"social-media-influencers-have-influenced-the-identity-formation-of-teenagers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/2019\/05\/05\/social-media-influencers-have-influenced-the-identity-formation-of-teenagers\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Influencers Have Influenced the Identity Formation of Teenagers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ABSTRACT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How teenagers identify\nthemselves, and choose to identify themselves in online communities and social\nnetworks, are heavily impacted by the identity cues they pick up from social\nmedia influencers. Sometimes these cues come with positive outcomes, and others\nwith negative. This study believes there are strong arguments for and against\nthis concept, but ultimately do not have overall harmful effects on the\nidentity formation of teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KEYWORDS: Social media, Identity Formation, Adolescents,\nMicro-celebrities, Influence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How teenagers identify\nthemselves, and choose to identify themselves in online communities and social\nnetworks, are heavily impacted by the identity cues they pick up from social\nmedia influencers. Sometimes these cues come with positive outcomes, and others\nwith negative. This study believes there are strong arguments for and against\nthis concept, but ultimately do not have overall harmful effects on the identity\nformation of teenagers. Identity formation is a major stage of development that\nevery adolescent will go through at least once in their life, and when taken\ninto account its relationship with social media, particularly social media\ninfluencers, the result is fairly consequential. The definition of identity for\nstarters, according to Aronson, Wilson, &\nAkert, is a combination of the \u201cself-concept, which is the knowledge of who we\nare\u201d and \u201cself awareness to develop a cognitive representation of the self\u201d.\nUltimately, varying factors that present themselves throughout the course of\nour lives, since we are not technically born with an identity, controls who we\nbecome. When the ubiquitous presence of the Internet and other new media are\nadded into this equation as \u2018extensions of everyday life and a tool of cultural\nchange\u2019 (Singh, 2010), the formation of identity is heavily \u201ctransformed in new\nand even more global ways\u201d (Worsham, 2011). \u2018Walt Whitman wrote, \u201cThere was a\nchild went forth every day. And the first object he looked upon, that object he\nbecame\u201d. In this spirit, it is warranted to explore who we become when some of\nthe first objects we look upon exist only on computer screens\u2019. Whitman further\ndescribes that online experiences \u201cchallenge, dramatizes and concretizes larger\ncultural trends that encourage people to think about identity in terms of\nmultiplicity and flexibility\u201d (Whitman, 1855; cited by Turkle, 1997).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As teenagers begin to search\nfor a sense of self and personal identity, a lot of inspiration will come from\nthe flood of information that sources from any form of media in front of them,\nparticularly social media. Given that an element of identity formation is \u201cthinking\nabout the type of person you want to be\u201d (Arnett, 2010, p.340), there is a lot\nto think about when a particular narrative of what someone should look like,\nand what they should be doing, and at what age they should be doing that is\nstrongly enforced. This can cause tensions to rise when ideas about what is\nconsidered appropriate and inappropriate to share on social media conflict\n(Mascheroni, Vincent & Jiminez; 2015). As social media usage more often\nthan not rewards individuals for uploading and sharing only positive images\nthrough their followers\u2019 likes and comments, this creates a deceptive cycle of\nonly positive self-perception. Especially considering that photos are viewed\nvery quickly and with limited effort, if the norm is for any given viewer to\nassign only a fraction of their attention span to a photo, that fraction is\nmore likely to increase if the photos are attractive. This subsequently\nencourages an individual to generate exclusively positive content, in the hopes\nthat it will retain the attention of their audience for longer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media influencers, also\nknown as micro-celebrities, are notorious for creating a perfect image of\nthemselves online and using that image to attract attention (Chae, 2017).\nDefined as  \u201cindividuals who are in a\nconsumer\u2019s social graph and have a direct impact on the behaviour of that\nconsumer\u201d (Brown & Hayes, 2008), micro-celebrities have a unique role being\nso close to consumers and their job description relying so heavily on\ndisseminating marketing messages (Ge & Gretzel, 2017). \u2018The development\nof micro-celebrities is mostly evident through Instagram, but they also exist\non YouTube, Twitter and other social platforms\u2019\n(Djafarova & Trofimenko, 2018), and seem to exercise the kind of luxurious\nlifestyle ordinary women could only aspire to (Chae, 2017). Instagram is a\nbreeding ground where this comparison between social media influencers and\nadolescents thrive. Because Instagram is \u2018currently one of the most\ndominant social media platforms for influencer marketing with more than 600\nmillion active users\u2019 (Evans, Phua, Lim, & Jun; 2017), the photo and video-sharing site is a strong\nmedium for young people to strive for social\nmedia fame and become fixated on images at the expense of substance, leading to\nthe development of a self-absorbed youth culture\u201d (Djafarova & Trofimenko,\n2018). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media influencers are\neasy for teenagers to get invested in, as they are similar to their audiences,\nand hence more appealing. Identification is easy when there is already a mould\nthere to mimic. An example of a high profile social media influencer that has\nthe potential to catalyse a false sense of one\u2019s perceptions of social reality\nincludes 20-year-old Brisbane YouTuber Lily Brown. In 2018, she broadcasted\nthat her insecurities led her to get an overkill of cosmetic surgery in one day\nincluding lip filler, cheek filler, and eyebrow lift and Botox in her forehead\n(Brown, 2018). She did disclose that it was a lot of work for her to get done,\nand she didn\u2019t want \u201cyounger people to ever think that because you\u2019re so\ninsecure that it\u2019s going to solve your problems because it\u2019s not\u201d (Brown,\n2018). Might have this been a stand alone occurrence, then the influence on\ntheir viewers consumption patterns and lifestyle may have been drowned out, but\nit goes hand in hand with her friend, another high profile influencer, Shani\nGrimmond. In 2017, she published a video titled, \u201cI Want A Boob Job\u2026\u201d\n(Grimmond, 2017) which received a lot of criticism for promoting unattainable\nbeauty standards, and a problematic relationship with viewers\u2019 natural bodies.\nShe also disclosed that she was only doing it for the sake of her own\nhappiness, but this passively moulds our society\u2019s value system to reject being\ncontent with the natural state of one\u2019s own appearance.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, these stereotypical\nportrayals of women feed a false sense of what the world actually is because\nthe role models that thousands of followers look up to have hiked up the\nunrealistic standard of beauty, normalised cosmetic surgery, and downplayed the\nimportance of intelligence. Instagram facilitates teenagers to conform to conventional beauty\nstandards, as the number of likes equate to validation and social legitimation,\nand overall, popularity. The way that teenagers choose to present themselves\nonline closely resemble the visual codes of advertising, with which social\nmedia influencers are trained in in order to advertise themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the impact of\nsocial media influencers is also known to have desirable consequences.\nInfluencers like 20-year-old Cartia Mallan inspire her followers to be more\nspiritually and emotionally vulnerable. Other positive experiences include\nsocial media influencers acting as ambassadors for \u201cself-expression, which\nenable self-reflection, catharsis, and validating feedback\u201d (Boyd, 2008). This\nis not the only case of social media influencers positively impacting their\nfollowers, and it won\u2019t be the last. On the other side of the same coin, Shani\nGrimmond has mentioned in many of her videos that she used to be really shy\nbefore starting YouTube made her more confident. This feeds into her followers\nprocessing that information and mimicking it.  \n                                                                   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, social media\ninfluencers do not have overall harmful effects on the identity formation of\nteenagers. How adolescents choose to process the information they are given\nonline cannot be equated to either a positive or negative experience when most\nof the time, the full use of an adolescent\u2019 experience on social media is\nmultifaceted. In the networked world of an adolescent, in some cases social\nmedia influencers can contribute to potentially harmful outcomes like envy and\nfeeling left out, and in other cases, can contribute to more positive outcomes\nlike self-expression. Social media influencers would know better than anyone\nhow complex social media use and influence is (Weinstein, 2018).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCE LIST<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arnett, J. J. (2010).  Adolescence and emerging\nadulthood:  A cultural<\/em> approach<\/em>. (4th edition). Upper\nSaddle River, NJ:  Pearson-Prentice Hall.
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Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2010). Social\nPsychology<\/em> (7th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall
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Boyd, D. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The\nRole of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), MacArthur\nFoundation Series on Digital Learning Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume<\/em>.\nCambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Brown, D., & Hayes, N. (2008). Influencer\nmarketing<\/em>. Amsterdam: ELSEVIER.
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Brown, L. (2018, March 6). UPDATED\nQ&A! WHATS BEEN GOING ON? <\/em>[Video file]. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9ereQoWeJ1Q<\/a>
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Chae,\nJiyoung. (2017). Explaining Females\u2019 Envy Toward Social Media Influencers. Media Psychology, 21 <\/em>(2), 246-262. https:\/\/doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au\/10.1080\/15213269.2017.1328312<\/a>
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Djafarova,\nE., & Trofimenko, O. (2018). \u2018Instafamous\u2019 \u2013 credibility and self-presentation\nof micro-celebrities on social media. Information,\nCommunication & Society.<\/em> https:\/\/doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au\/10.1080\/1369118X.2018.1438491<\/a>
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Evans,\nN. J., Phua, J., Lim, J., & Hyoyeun, J. (2017). Disclosing Instagram\nInfluencer Advertising: The Effects of Disclosure Language on Advertising\nRecognition, Attitudes, and Behavioural Intent. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 17 <\/em>(2), 138-149. https:\/\/doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au\/10.1080\/15252019.2017.1366885<\/a>
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Ge, J., & Gretzel, U.\n(2017). Emoji rhetoric: a social media influencer perspective, Journal of Marketing Management, 34 <\/em>(15-16),\n1272-1295. https:\/\/doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au\/10.1080\/0267257X.2018.1483960<\/a>
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Grimmond, S. (2017, August 20). I Want A Boob Job\u2026 | SHANI GRIMMOND <\/em>[Video file]. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=26yofI60cVw<\/a>
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Singh, C. (2010). New Media and Cultural Identity. China Media Research, 6<\/em>(1), 86-90.
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Turkle, S. (1997). Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual\nCommunity at the End of the Freudian Century. Sociological Inquiry<\/em>,\n67(1).
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Weinstein,\nE. (2018). The social media see-saw: Positive and negative influences on\nadolescent\u2019s affective well being, New\nMedia & Society, 20 <\/em>(10), 3597-3623. https:\/\/doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au\/10.1177\/1461444818755634<\/a>
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worsham, S. (2011, November 28). Media\u2019s Influence on Social Norms\nand Identity Development of Youth [Blog post]. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.personal.psu.edu\/bfr3\/blogs\/applied_social_psychology\/2011\/11\/medias-influence-on-social-norms-and-identity-development-of-youth.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABSTRACT How teenagers identify themselves, and choose to identify themselves in online communities and social networks, are heavily impacted by the identity cues they pick up from social media influencers. Sometimes these cues come with positive outcomes, and others with negative. This study believes there are strong arguments for and against this concept, but ultimately… Continue reading Social Media Influencers Have Influenced the Identity Formation of Teenagers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[88,87,16,89,21],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-identity","tag-adolescents","tag-identity-formation","tag-influence","tag-micro-celebrities","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}