Abstract

This research paper explores the influence of the Internet in shaping the users’ identities and the effects it has on adolescents who are in the process of figuring out their identities and their self-image. It focuses on the effects the Internet has on the self-image of the users in terms of their gender, race and political views. It is based on the research done on the ecologies of online chat rooms by Subrahmanyam, Smahel, Greenfield (2006) who conducted experiments to study the interactions of users in monitored and un-monitored chatrooms; as well as research conducted by Valkenburg, Schouten and Peter (2005) on the trends of self-representation that are used by both genders and different age groups. It also investigates the role of the Internet in terms of representation of race, language and political views, and how the Internet has been a means for users to voice their opinions and views online, in cases where governments censor media content.

The Internet’s Effect on Shaping Identities in Terms of Gender, Race and Communities

The Internet provides the outlet people need to portray their identities to others. The expansive variety of Web 2.0 platforms provides every Internet user a platform that they feel most comfortable to use. An individual’s personality will determine the type of platform they are most attracted to. However there has been a lot of research suggesting that the Internet has major influence on the development of the user’s personalities. The experiences people go through when they are online can inspire certain changes within the person’s personality and the image they want to put out. The Internet creates a space where the users have the power to decide the way they wish to portray themselves using the cover of anonymity, as such we cannot deny that the Internet plays a role on the development of a person’s identity, particularly when it comes to the way they represent themselves in terms of their gender, race and their communal identity.

Representation of Gender Online

The way a person represents their self-image can be impacted by their surroundings, and this also applies in the virtual world. As described by Baumeister (1998) “Self-presentation is defined as people’s attempts to convey information about, and images of, the self and its identities to others” (Valkenburg, Schouten and Peter 2005).  The platforms people join can play a big role in changing the image they put out of themselves. When it comes to gender, we notice a variety of ways that people present themselves, we can divide gender representation online into two categories. The first category is the gender-neutral approach and the second is a gendered approach. To explain these two approaches, we can use the example of the usernames people use on platforms. Some may use their name which in most cases can give an indication to what the user’s gender is, on the other hand people who wish to keep their online identities somewhat private tend to use nicknames.

In Valkenburg et al’s (2005) research on the experiments adolescents conduct on their online identities they found that both men and women use gender-specific self-presentational methods when creating their pages. It is important for both men and women to present their femininity and masculinity in real life, but the same applies to their virtual identities where we see most men use their pages to present a tough and confident image. On the other hand, women use their pages to present themselves as nice and attractive. We can also see how both genders gravitate towards different types of platforms depending on their comfort levels with each platform. This is supported by the study Kaveri, Smahel and Greenfield (2006) conducted using two types of chatrooms, monitored chat room and a non-monitored chatroom. Both chatrooms had a mix of kids from ages 10 to 24. Kaveri et al, found that younger and female participants gravitated more towards the monitored chat rooms while the older male participants gravitated towards the unmonitored chat rooms. Apart from their selection of chatrooms, participants also presented their gender identities through their nicknames.

Race Online

The ever-growing features of the Internet facilitate the user’s representation of their race. Features like emojis that come in a range of skin colours and also reflect ethnicities through emojis with headscarves or the dancing Spanish girl; make it easier for users to describe themselves. In some platforms users can even create avatars of themselves and choose the features of their avatars to either mirror their true features like hair colour, eye colour and so on. However, some users choose to create an avatar of what they wish they looked like or an avatar with features they feel would be accepted. This can include the colour of skin where darker coloured users choose a lighter skinned avatar, thinking that it would allow them to fit in better with the other users. Lisa Nakamura (2002) explains “When users’ characters, or “avatars,” are differently raced from the user, the opportunity for online recreational passing or “identity tourism” arises”. On the other hand, the Internet provides an opportunity for anonymity. The fact that the other users cannot see the person behind the screen and can only view what the user wants them to see brings an opportunity for the user to be judged based on their personality and opinions they choose to put online.

 Another example is the case of the racism on online platforms we can reference the incident of Adam Goodes the Australian indigenous player in the Australian Football League team, who was in the receiving end of racial discrimination on Facebook and Twitter. As Ariadna Matamoros-Fernandez (2017) explains “platformed racism unfolded in the Adam Goode’s controversy as the entanglement between users’ practices to disguise and amplify racist humor and abuse, and the contribution of platforms’ features and algorithms in the circulation of overt and covert hate speech.” This supports the notion that the Internet’s tracking of users’ online identities and digital footprint can be used as a catalyst for online racism. As the information that users put on their homepages or the content that they share can reflect their position in terms of other races. For example, some users do not have an issue with voicing their racist opinions on other people’s content. This is how online racism takes place and how the Internet can either influence people to hide their true identity in terms of race, or on the other hand, it can be a catalyst for people who have slight racist tendencies to use the identity protection the Internet can provide to become more confident in voicing their opinions on other people’s profiles.

Communal Identity Online

It is human nature for any individual to feel the need to belong, the various platforms of the Internet offer users a way for them to satisfy that need. Users can achieve this by engaging with a group of people who share the same ideals as them. These mutual ideals can be regarding language, religion, political views or the users could simply belong to the same community. For example language is the most straightforward way that people present themselves to others. It is not just what they say and the tone they say it in that gives insight as to who they are, but also the language they use. For example, the Internet brings together people from around the world that have a common language, this common language is what brings them together and creates an online community. As most computers offer multi-lingual options, users are able to voice their opinions and present their content in their native tongue, and then share this content and create a bond with other users. For people that are multi-lingual the Internet provides them options to switch back and forth between the languages they use. For example, an individual can share content online in Spanish and thus develop his/her online presence in groups and online communities that share the same background and speak the same language. While on the other hand that same user can switch to talking in English and feel like he/she belongs to a wider community. Mark Warschauer (2001) says “through choices of language and dialect, people constantly make and remake who they are” to explain this we can say that people use their language as a way of representing their identities. The Internet allows for people to keep in touch with other users from the same communities as well as to keep their native language alive. A Hawaiian student called Iolanie explained to Warschauer that their teacher encouraged them to translate their research into their native language and post their work online so other Hawaiian students can find and use the Hawaiian transcripts instead of the English versions. Warschauer explains in his paper that this process allowed the students to feel that they have contributed to the reservation of the Hawaiian language and culture.

The Internet does not only strengthen the user’s communal identity via the spoken language but also through the political content that gets shared online. For example, there is not a lot of restrictions that platform creators apply to their platforms. In most platforms political views are allowed, to a certain extent. While some platforms choose to censor certain political views when they become extreme others allow their users to express their opinions freely. This lack of censorship provides Internet users access to political views that would have not been allowed on TV or in public due to being prohibited by the government. This gives users a better chance at developing their own opinions about politics and government work. It also gives them the confidence to voice their agreement or disagreement with other people’s views. The fact that they share the same views with a larger group of people can often give users confidence and conviction that their opinion is the right one.

In Turkey social media played a big role in users protesting against certain governmental policies. When the government applied censorship on media outlets and prevented them from producing content that contradicted their values, social media was the platform the Turkish people used to show their disagreements with the way things were going as well as a place to organize events and demonstrations against the government. Tuge Gulsen (2014) describes platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as tools the Turkish people were using to show their resistance as well as to voice their political engagement. In Turkey only, the Pew Research Center reported that %81 of Internet users were using social media and that the users belonged to the age range of 18 to 29 (Gulsen  2014). This shows how widespread social media usage is in Turkey and its importance for shaping the identities of Turkey’s young adults.

Conclusion

The Internet has proven to be an integral part of any individual’s life, as its usage varies from educational usage to recreational. The Pew Research Center revealed that the content users share on social media is %67 music and movies, %46 community issues, %43 sports, %34 politics and %14 religion (Gulsen 2014). These statistics prove the importance of the Internet on shaping a person’s identity as it provides platforms for users to engage with other people about common interests. Since young adults also have access to the Internet and to platforms that connect them to anyone in the world and also exposes them to what is happening in the world from wars to new cultures, we can see that it plays an important role on shaping their personalities and identities. It gives its users the chance to gain access to material that peaks their interest and would otherwise be inaccessible to them. This access allows them to reshape the opinions that were instilled in them from their community or families. It creates a chance for them to form their own opinions and see different points of view.

References

Gülşen, T. (2014). Turkish Youth’s (Re)Construction of their Political Identity in Social Media, before “Resistanbul”. Advances In Social Networking And Online Communities, 1-22. doi: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5150-0.ch001

Matamoros-Fernandez, A. (2017). Platformed racism: the mediation and circulation of an Australian race-based controversy on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Information, Communication & Society, 20(6), 930-946   https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1293130

Nakamura, L. (2002). Cybertypes. New York: Routledge.

Subrahmanyam, K. & Smahel, D. & Greenfield, P. (2006). Connecting Developmental       Constructions to the Internet: Identity Presentation and Sexual Exploration in Online Teen Chat Rooms. Developmental Psychology, 42(3), 395-406

Valkenburg, P., Schouten, A., & Peter, J. (2005). Adolescents’ identity experiments on the internet. New Media & Society, 7(3), 383-402. doi: 10.1177/1461444805052282

Warschauer, M. (2001) Language, identity, and the Internet. Mot Pluriels, 19 as retrieved from http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP1901mw.html