Adolescence and identity in the digital era

When talking about identity, the first definition that comes in mind is Erik Eriksons1 psychosocial
approach to understanding identity by describing the interplay between the individual biology,
psychology, and social recognition and response within an historical context. Furthermore, he identified
the goal of adolescence as achieving a coherent identity and avoiding identity confusion. Identity is
multidimensional and may include physical and sexual identity, occupational goals, religious beliefs, and
ethnic background. Adolescents explore these dimensions, and usually make commitments to aspects of
their identity as they move into early adulthood. Psychologist James Marcia2 hypothesized that identity
development involves two steps. First, the adolescent must break away from childhood beliefs to
explore alternatives for identity in a particular area. Second, the adolescent makes a commitment as to
their individual identity in that area. Shifting from the young ages when children tend to copy the
behaviour of their adult role models such as their parents adolescents tend to acquire norms, values,
attitudes, motivations and behaviour from socialization agents through social interaction, as well as
from different media sources ( for instance television). Psychologists reached the conclusion that
adolescence is most likely the stage of life where friends are the most influential. Adolescents often find
their identity in the social group to which they belong. Studies have shown that friends can determine
the success or demise of adolescents. The desire for friends can be explained by William Schutzs 3
concept of the 3 interpersonal needs: control, inclusion, and affection. Friends meet all three of these
needs and so does social networking. Erikson also acknowledged the influence of friends on
development. He claimed that, An adolescent must struggle to discover and find his or her own
identity, while negotiating and struggling with social interactions and fitting in, and developing a sense
of morality and right from wrong.
If we are talking about an internet identity (IID) or an internet persona we can consider it as an
actively constructed presentation of ones self. Also, Media Studies scholar Jenny Sundn describes this
process as people typing themselves into being. But what stops us from changing the being we are
offline, to suit the standards that our followers have online, thus creating a completely different self?
Online profiles provide an opportunity for anyone to display an altered reality of their identity. Users
may put up only the pictures that they want seen, and pass any information about themselves as truth.
They could create a totally fictional identity, although most probably project just an improved version
of their own identity for the sake of acceptance and approval.
Catherine Steiner-Adair, a psychologist and author of The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and
Family Relationships in the Digital Age, explains that the kind of outside affirmation teens seek online is
a vital part of how teens form identity. The need for validation and confirmation that youre OK is so
huge, *+Parents often say, 'How could you go on a site where people can anonymously respond to
1

Erik Erikson, Identity: Youth and Crisis,1968

James Marcia, Identity Development - Aspects of Identity, Child Development Reference - Vol 4.
William Schutz, Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation, 1958

whatever your question is: Am I cute? Am I fat?'4 But were forgetting what it means to be a teenager
when we say things like that.
Social media allow kids to broadcast everything while connecting them to experiences they might not
have encountered a generation ago. But it also opens teens up to exponential ridicule or an amplified
feeling of invisibility that can influence the perceptions they have of themselves.
Scholars argue that managing an online profile can add confusion to ones identity development;
adolescents are already seeking an acceptable identity, and through the use of online profiles, they have
the ability to physically create and manipulate the identity they want to convey to others. The
maintenance of an ideal identity may stunt the development of an adolescents actual identity. At the
very least, it will most likely complicate an already complicated stage of life. To a certain extent, the
conflict between ones actual identity and the identity that one wants to be has existed for a long time,
however, online profiles have created almost a full proof system that allows for the desired identity to
exist safe from reality showing through.
Even if it seems harmless at first, the peer pressure from trying to fit into a certain group can lead to a
lot a problems in the development of teens who try to be more of what their friends want them to be
rather than what they really want to be, thus leading to a low self-esteem, comparing ones physical
persona to ones virtual persona (who is usually an improved version of ones self). In a 2010 survey
from the Girl Scout Research Institute, 74 percent of girls said they felt their peers used social media to
"make themselves look cooler than they are," and 41 percent said that also describes them.
Even if most teenagers tend to outgrow their insecurities regarding their persona and being less affected
by peer pressure by the time they enter adulthood, there have been cases where teens became
obsessed with their image or the one that they projected online- thus developing a state of
perfectionism - striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high performance standards,
accompanied by overly critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others' evaluations- having a
constant fear of failure and a fear of disapproval. There's no single definitive reason someone becomes a
perfectionist, but according to Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D., in Psychology Today, today's teens are
especially prone to perfectionism because of societal pressure to be the best in order to be accepted.

Reference to the site Ask.fm and to the case of 14-year-old Smith who cut herself and drink bleach, as a result to
those comments