To: Rebecca Agosta

From: David Hoski

Date: 7/15/16
Subject of Inquiry: Social Media and Identity
Introduction
I am interested in the effect that social media has on the way that a person develops their selfidentity because it is having a noticeable effect on todays youth. Last summer, my dads side of
the family took a one-week vacation to Lake Keowee. I had not seen most of my cousins in a
few years so it was no surprise that everyone had changed a lot. One of the differences that was
most profound was that my youngest cousin, who was fourteen, spent almost all of the time on
social media. Andrew has always loved doing outside activities. He plays four sports, is twice
as good at snow skiing than I was at his age, and used to spend almost all of his free time running
around the neighborhood with his friends. He still did all of those things, but that summer he
was spending an inordinate amount of time on his phone. When I discussed his social media
activity, it was obvious that peoples online opinion of him had a significant effect on his selfesteem. I asked my aunt when Andrew had become so active on social media and she told me
that it was when they got him his first smartphone 3 weeks earlier. She also commented that he
is starting to skip out on family events because he wants to stay on his social media accounts.
She said that he has started to view his interactions with people online the same way that he
views his interactions with people in real life. For example, a lot of followers on Instagram
means that a lot of people like him. I commented that his behavior seemed strange and she told
me that it was commonplace; all of his friends acted the same way. Social media was on the rise
at the tail end of my childhood. Myspace came out the summer before my eighth grade
schoolyear and then quickly died out. Facebook launched the last semester of eighth grade and
didnt become very popular until my sophomore year. Twitter was released the summer before
my junior year and I didnt know what it was until I was in college. I made a Facebook account
the last semester of my senior year in high school because I needed a way to keep in touch with
my classmates. While social media had definitely gained a large user base when I was in high
school, I didnt use it at all until I was in college. As such, I know nothing about the effect that
social media has on how people develop their self-identity except for the cursory research that I
have done into the subject. This topic is relevant to our coursework because the subject of
identity is at the heart of what we have studied so far. It is especially pertinent because of the
emphasis that we have put on how technology is affecting us as individuals and as a society.
Proposed Research Methods
In order to better understand this topic, I will read studies done about the effect that social media
has on peoples self-identity. These studies are where I will pull the majority of my information.
I will also look for forums where people give their opinions on how social media affected them
when they were growing up. Ideally, I will find posts on social media apps that exemplify the

way that social media is changing how peoples self-identities progress as they mature, especially
during adolescence.
Inquiry Questions
1. How did people develop their self-identities before the rise of social media?
a. What were the driving forces behind this development?
b. Were they consistent across gender? Why?
c. How much influence did parents have on their childrens self-identity? Why?
d. At what age does peoples self-identity grow the most?
e. How did people express their self-identity?
2. How did people develop their self-identities after the rise of social media?
a. What new driving forces did social media introduce and which old ones did it
replace?
b. Is social medias effect on self-identity consistent across gender? Why?
c. Is social media changing the effect that parents have on their childrens identity?
How?
d. Has the age that people develop their self-identity the most changed? Why?
e. Has the way that people express their self-identity changed? Why?