{"id":5687,"date":"2025-04-27T23:12:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T15:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/?p=5687"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T03:52:07","slug":"digital-belonging-in-online-communities-is-redefining-how-gen-zs-form-their-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/csm\/5687\/digital-belonging-in-online-communities-is-redefining-how-gen-zs-form-their-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital belonging in online communities is redefining how Gen Zs form their identity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\nAbstract\n\n\n\nThis paper explores how online communities foster a sense of digital belonging, significantly reshaping the social, emotional, and political identities of young people. As platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit offer a digital space for self-expression, connection, and validation, Gen Zs are increasingly using these apps to experiment with identity, form their own values, and develop an understanding of being. This paper argues that the desire to belong in digital spaces is <a href=\"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/csm\/5687\/digital-belonging-in-online-communities-is-redefining-how-gen-zs-form-their-identity\/\" class=\"more-link\">...<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abstract This paper explores how online communities foster a sense of digital belonging, significantly reshaping the social, emotional, and political identities of young people. As platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit offer a digital space for self-expression, connection, and validation, Gen Zs are increasingly using these apps to experiment with identity, form their own values, and develop an understanding of being. This paper argues that the desire to belong in digital spaces is &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1492,1298,1647,1648,1304,1402,1474,1310],"class_list":["post-5687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-csm","tag-communities-and-social-media","tag-community","tag-digital-belonging","tag-digital-space","tag-identity","tag-online-identity","tag-sense-of-belonging","tag-social-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5687"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5757,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687\/revisions\/5757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}