Social Media's Role in Shaping Teenagers' Self-Identity: A Study

This essay examines the pervasive influence of social media on the self-identity of teenagers, focusing on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. It explores how these platforms facilitate communication, content sharing, and interaction, significantly impacting how teenagers perceive themselves and interact with others. The essay delves into the concept of self-individualism, highlighting the critical period of teenage development and the role of social media in shaping personal identity. It also analyzes the influence of likes, comments, and retweets on self-esteem and mental health, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach to online interactions. The essay incorporates Erving Goffman's theories on impression management, exploring how teenagers construct and present their identities online. It also draws on Walter Ong's framework of orality and literacy to understand how digital platforms have transformed communication and expression, contributing to the formation of secondary orality. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of social media in teenagers' lives and its potential effects on their well-being.

Running Head: Network 0
Communication

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Social Media shape “the self “of teenagers
Social Media is pervasive to our everyday life and an essential part of the lives of
teenagers. The social media has now taken the shape of smartphones and Internet with high-
quality cameras, digital technology, and long-lasting battery. They have transformed in the
manner in which we capture, recollect, and communicate information of daily life. It is stated
that people utilize social media applications to post pictures, updates, and videos to a mass
audience than ever before. It significantly influences in the manner in which they interact
with others and the media (Berriman & Thomson, 2015).
Social media describes as any digital platform that allows people to build and share
content and interact with each other. Teenagers utilize Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp,
Instagram, and other sites to connect with a mass number of people. It is a way for teenagers
to stay in touch with well-beings. It is an important platform for connection and socialization
in the modern era as teenagers utilize social media in learning about current events,
connecting new people, and update with the modern world. Being socially connected is
nowadays important to bond with their friends and develop effective social skills (Bauwens,
2016).
The shaping of self-individualism in teenagers is the significant and susceptible part
of our lives. It is stated that self-identity that we develop during the teenage time follows us
in the adulthood time, which makes it exceptionally a critical period of time. This extent of
connectivity and sharing has opened many doors for the communication and generation of
personal identity. Teenagers utilize social media for assisting in maintaining a cordial
relationship and exposing them to a more diverse world (Fardouly, Diedrichs, Vartanian &
Halliwell, 2015). Developing concern over social media’s influence on today’s youth, a
survey conducted from Research Centre stated that several young people encourage a sense
of self from generating an impression they wish to give to others. Snapchat, Facebook, and
Instagram are the most used social media platform by teenagers who rely on the approval of
others through comments and “likes” (Giroux & Pollock, 2018).

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("YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among
teens", 2019)
It is quite evident that self-identity in teens depend upon likes receive on a post, which
develops the relationship with others. Several teens girls strive to think that followers,
retweets, and likes are the coolest social currency just for their digital presence to create fun
and excitement in real life. This sort of thinking and behaviour can also tend to negative
effect as mental health concerns like anxiety, mood disorder, and depression. So, self-
individuality in teenagers needs to be nurtured and developed by more than just share and
“likes” on interactive media. It is our duty to provide support and establish their self-esteem
on important matters. Young people also believed that social media assist teenagers to build
self-identity and became more exposed to greater diversity and interact with other people.
Roughly around two-third teenager find social media effectively to interact with people from
different backgrounds and point of view (Berezan, Krishen, Agarwal & Kachroo, 2018).
It is also stated that it is very common for these people to share their family life
events, achievements, daily events despite political beliefs or personal problems. It is very
important for them to share on social media and build the self-identity among them.
Nowadays teenagers have also developed the “selfie generation” and share the selfies on
social media. For some teenagers, posting their life online can carry out with social and
psychological burdens and feel pressure to share content on social media that make them look
attractive to others and get a lot of many comments or likes. With respect to that, the online

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environment for today’s teenagers sometimes unfollow or unfriend others on social media
(Charteris, Gregory & Masters, 2018).
It shapes the self of teenagers as by enabling them to build a semi-public and public
profile within a framework to share a connection among other people. It also provides
freedom to present themselves in an environment that feels safe among their peer group
(Raby, Caron, Théwissen-LeBlanc, Prioletta & Mitchell, 2018). The teens are empowered to
present their identities and influence their well-being. The utilization of social media
platforms delivers significant backdrop for the emotional, cognitive, and emotional
development incorporating for a period of time. Teenagers spend a considerable amount of
time online as a method to connect with their friends. They consistently utilize their profiles
to interact and increase their peer network. They are also capable to maintain their agency
with their online platform with tremendous control over their interaction and connection with
others (Baturay & Toker, 2017).
Social interaction with generalized others
Erving Goffman stated from the Presentation of Self in daily life through an
evaluation of process and interaction process. He determines the details of individual identity,
movement of interaction, the impact of environment, and group relations. His point of view
through the limited scope offers insights into the matter of social interaction and attitude of
the people. Goffman engages a “dramaturgical approach” with the mode of presentation in
the broader social context. He believes that interaction is determined as a “performance”
shaped by audience and environment built to offer others with impressions, which is constant
with the objective of the individual. He postulated that social connection among individuals is
basically an attractive conceptualization of identity formation in the digital world today. The
selfie has also become a common notion and a feature of most socially connected individuals
with hashtag # selfie and share it on Instagram and Facebook (Scheibe & Barrett, 2017).
Goffman has also stated that social interaction and online identity formation gives rise
to an interest in people a visual expression of self with the help of this feature. Theories of
visual self-representation utilize an attractive conceptualization of human connection where
people behave as “theatre actors” on stage. Throughout interaction, people are perceived as
“performing” so that they give attention to the impressions they have to convey to other
people. “Impression management” is commonly described when an actor is aware of being

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recognized by an audience and performing with social etiquette and particular rules. Goffman
claimed that in respect to create a stable self-perception, they should develop a constant
performance and take the challenge to build a self-identity with the social media platform. A
lack of consistency might cause a discrepant role to encourage the audience and the
performer’s integrity (Gengler & Ezzell, 2018).
He uses the metaphor of a “mask” to face the notion of misrepresentation and
deception in a face-to-face connection. His mask is the formation of oneself, which defined
the role they need to strive and aspires to be. The distance among audience and actor makes it
effective to maintain impressions to exhibit specific aspects during building social interaction
and generalizing others. In the perspective of Goffman, the concept of idealization has been
acknowledged to develop a motive for people to engage the mask in the stage. It is to be
stated that efforts are made to develop an idealistic version of compatible with norms of the
community that are socially authorized (Garcia-Alexander, Woo & Carlson, 2017).
In contemporary society, the advancement of social media platform and different
features involving likes, friend likes, photos, followers, and photos has allowed customers to
develop a wide assortment of social identity. However, Goffman work paves the way towards
the initiation of the networking and the online social connection, which has stimulated
discussions about other related impressions in the digital world. It is to be evident that
Goffman’s idea appears to be embedded in the cognition of people which utilizes oneself as
per the modern society and need to be incorporated in innovative technology. They need to
maintain that adaptability, connection, timelessness, and mobility in the digital world. It also
demonstrates the fact that photos on social media platforms follow the traditional theory of
impression management. Goffman depicts the fact that sharing a photo in the digital world
can be executed as front stage acting. It can be associated with the concept of impression
management in which it depicts one’s appearance. In addition, after adopting the metaphor of
the mask, one covers specific characteristics that support to develop an online self-
representation (Fawkes, 2015).
It has been stated from the research that women sharing a diversity of photos of their
own, which continues to be divided as per the idealistic framework determined for
generations of women. The most significant traits determined by the women consisted of
dependency and physical attractiveness. The people have made use of online photos to
increase awareness about their rights. This concept of self-determination has been recognized

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to be related to values of managing connections with others. It has been reported that several
people have challenged the recurrence of expectations and gendered ideals. Therefore, the
impact of photos on online identity creation through social media depicts women’s efforts to
appear significantly (Chen, 2016).
Every individual is assured to social interaction while making an effort to realize a
sense of freedom in deliberating freedom and truth. Goffman depicts that extraordinary
situation as a method of determining the concept in everyday life. With the investigation, it
has been clear that the connection between the forces that modernize society. He also
displays an interaction in dealing with an explored area of social thought. It is to be noted that
nowadays teenagers are no longer introvert and self-efficacy. Now, they have more powers in
their palms by which they can go online and post cover photos, profile photos, a picture of
food, selfies, and definitely outfit of the day. This generates as much currency as possible i.e.
shares, likes, retweets, and comments. They used social media to communicate with one
another and to those who are staying far apart. Becoming part of a social media impression
are broadcasted to the world (Bahl, 2017).
Walter Ong notion of analysis states that it recognized a shift from beginning to
modality as it is a paradigm shift of the human to think differently. This work is based upon a
framework of Ong for literacy and orality. It is the framework of significant cultural scenario
allowed for the advancement of virtuality culture. It depicts the fact that it is significant to
identify that people communicate with each other using social media and other innovative
technologies. As, there are several ways to maintain expression and human interaction with
intention and immediacy, which assist in connecting to a mass number of people. Ong also
states that this permits instant feedback, motivates increased fluidity in the sharing of
information, and encourages development. Technology has made remarkable progress and
continuing to modernize in the manner we communicate. They need to be properly aware of
the technology as well as social changes that would eventually transform the thinking and
contributing to the secondary orality as a method of communication. This makes an effective
step for describing the features of expression and thought, which is a major development that
tends to a shift to literacy-based culture (Labahn, 2016).
In conclusion, it has been stated that social media is pervasive to our everyday life as
it shapes “the self” of teenagers. Social networking is a vital part of their lives as it assists to
stay connected. Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook are the major popular digital platforms

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among them. Several people believe that it is the coolest thing to make their online presence
by getting likes, comments, and retweets. This attitude can tend to major health issues such as
depression and other mental health-related problems. Erving Goffman describes that person
develops the identity of building a connection with others with the help of sharing of
information.

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