Social Media and Adolescent Identity: Understanding the Impact

Adolescence period is filled with vulnerabilities and risks, as well as incredible opportunities and potential for growth. Meeus (2018, p.13) highlights that adolescence can be a period of turmoil, chaos, and rebellion or a period in which individuals mature into stable adults. In his psychosocial theory of development, Erikson (1978) highlights that identity formation is the key development task in the adolescence period. He defines personal identity as the extent to which a person has adopted clear and consistent goals, beliefs, and values. A successful transition leads to a coherent identity with a clear sense of who they are and adopting clear commitments in various life domains: education, work, interpersonal relationships and ideology (Erikson, 1978). If unsuccessful, it leads to role confusion, instability, insecurity and lack of direction. Identity is shaped by intrapersonal, interpersonal and social factors (Erikson, 1978). With social media becoming part of adolescents' daily lives, it presents a major social domain for identity formation (Kolotouchkina et al., 2023; Raiziene et al., 2022). Social media shapes adolescent identity both positively and negatively. This essay argues that despite the potential benefits of social media, it predominantly shapes adolescent identity negatively.

The Impact of Social Approval on Identity

During the adolescence period, the need for acceptance and validation is heightened hence anything that makes them feel rejected including negative feedback, no feedback on their posts and cyber bullying leads to a decrease in self-worth, anxiety and depression which negatively impact identity formation. Feedback provided in social media is public and visible to other online audiences hence negative feedback influences self-esteem as well as subjective evaluation of their worth (Koutamanis et al., 2015). Additionally due to the need for acceptance, they worry about perceived perspectives of online audience when they fail to receive feedback or when they get a few likes on their post. When they post on social media, they try to imagine the perspectives of the online audience on their posts and act based on that (Cingel & Krcmar, 2014). Moreover, In the pursuit of approval and acceptance, adolescents also adopt behaviors that are favored by online audience even when the behaviors are risky (Lavertu et al., 2020). They also tend to present a version of themselves that they perceive to be acceptable. Schreurs and Vandenbosch (2021) reported that adolescents strive to create a positive image of themselves on social media. This leads to identity distortion which negatively impacts identity formation.

Social Comparison and Identity Development

Social comparison further impacts identity negatively. Adolescents compare themselves with their peers and comparison standards may seem too high and unattainable since most of the posts are based on idealized self and not the real self. Verduyn et al (2020) observed that in the digital world, most posts are based on idealized images of self and people share more self-enhancing information with a bias towards sharing more information on success than failures. Midgley et al (2021) further highlighted that social media posts increase the discrepancy between the actual self and the ideal self, eliciting a greater number of comparisons. Without awareness of these facts, trying to attain high standards may lead to pressure, depression and further confusion on roles and identity. In a bid to meet the standards, they may also try to express themselves in ways that end up distorting their identity and creating identity conflicts instead of forming a stable identity.

Potential Benefits vs. Reality

Some may argue that social media predominantly shapes adolescent identity positively by providing an opportunity for self-presentation, supportive communities and online role models which leads to identity exploration as they express their ideas, interests and belief leading to development of a clear sense of self (Pérez-Torres, 2024). This observation is valid; however, these aspects also have negative components which still outweigh the benefits. Adolescents utilize various strategies for self-presentation including creating fake profiles, modifying their appearance and impersonating others, all of which can be part of identity exploration, but also hinders achieving self-concept clarity (Kennedy & Lynch, 2016). Supportive communities can be empowering but at the same time, in these same communities, negative feedback and cyberbullying also occurs which reverses positive gains and further harms them. Some of the online role models also present their idealized self and can lead to frustration as opposed to inspiration.

While it is true that social media has potential positive benefits like providing an opportunity for self-presentation, supportive communities and online role models, these benefits are overshadowed by the negative impacts. Fox and Moreland (2015) suggest that the negative impacts of social media on adolescents and their sense of self have been underestimated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, social media provides a platform to shape identity positively by providing opportunities for identity exploration through self-presentation, online supportive community and online role models. However, the negative impacts on identity formation far outweigh these benefits. These include identity confusion, low self-worth, adoption of risky behaviors, depression and anxiety which results from negative feedback received from online audience, cyber bullying, negative social comparison and presentation of idealized self in a bid to fit in. Awareness on these negative impacts is critical in ensuring that the opportunities provided by social media are harnessed. I call on parents, educators and policy makers to implement strategies that will build digital literacy, emotional resilience and ensuring mindful use of social media in order to maximize on the benefits provided by social media while minimizing the negative impacts.

References

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