YouTuber videos and the construction of adolescent identity

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to analyze the content of YouTuber's videos that have the greatest impact on adolescents and their relationship with the construction of identity. The YouTube platform is one of the most commonly used by Spanish teenagers and around 70% of young people between 14 and 17 years of age prefer this network. YouTubers are perceived by young people as their equals, approachable people who share similar traits to their own, which facilitates rapid identification. A qualitative analysis of the content of 22 videos on the YouTube platform was carried out using the Atlas.ti program. The analysis led to several emerging codes related to the construction of adolescent personal identity. Most of the messages relating to personal identity were aimed at transmitting the self-impression of the YouTuber and the relationship of that self-impression with his gender identity, sexual orientation, and vocational identity. Also, family and peers appeared in the videos, especially as providers of social support. Teen followers include messages to support YouTubers, express their identification with the messages and use comment spaces to describe their own experiences, expressing the same concerns in the configuration of their identity. It is necessary to take into account this new space of interrelation to understand the development of young people’s identity. El objetivo general de esta investigación consiste en analizar el contenido de los vídeos de los youtubers de mayor impacto entre los adolescentes y su relación con la construcción de la identidad. La plataforma YouTube es una de las más utilizadas por los adolescentes españoles, ya que alrededor del 70% de los jóvenes entre 14 y 17 años prefieren esta red. Los youtubers son percibidos por los jóvenes como sus iguales, personas cercanas que comparten rasgos similares a los suyos, lo que facilita la rápida identificación con ellos. Se ha realizado un análisis cualitativo del contenido de 22 vídeos de la plataforma YouTube mediante el programa Atlas.ti. El análisis ha dado lugar a varios códigos emergentes relacionados con la construcción de la identidad personal en la adolescencia. La mayoría de los mensajes sobre la identidad personal estaban orientados a transmitir la autodefinición que hace el youtuber sobre sí mismo y la relación de esa autoimagen con su identidad de género, orientación sexual e identidad vocacional. Además, la familia y los iguales aparecen en los vídeos, especialmente como proveedores de apoyo social. Los seguidores adolescentes incluyen mensajes de apoyo al youtuber, manifiestan su identificación con los mensajes y utilizan los espacios de comentarios para exponer sus experiencias personales, expresando las mismas inquietudes en la configuración de su identidad. Es necesario tener en cuenta este nuevo espacio de interrelación en la comprensión del desarrollo identitario de los jóvenes.

La televisió dels mil·lennistes: una aproximació als seus hàbits de visionament

“…En consecuencia, parece lógico que los anunciantes empiecen a basar sus estrategias de comunicación en el denominado marketing de influencia (Brown y Fiorella, 2013), que consiste en la localización de aquellas personas relevantes que son capaces de influir en los mensajes de las marcas y ante un determinado público objetivo. En buena medida, el éxito de los youtuberos como influidores radica en que se produce una verdadera identificación entre el personaje y sus seguidores (López, 2015), llegando incluso a influir en la configuración de la identidad de los usuarios más jóvenes (Pérez-Torres et al, 2018).…”

Channels produced by LGBT+ YouTubers: gender discourse analysis

“…YouTubers are perceived by teenagers as their equals (Pérez-Torres et al, 2018), which enables identification with them (Westenberg, 2016). YouTubers as well as their subscribers' communities mostly belong to the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998), a generation that not only uses the Internet for communicating, but also for self-realizing and forging their own identity (Feixa, 2000).…”

“…Open sites on the Internet and social networks, such as Instagram or YouTube, have become one of the most relevant contexts for teenage identity construction thanks to the fact that they allow the possibility to interlink and to establish relationships with their equals (Barker, 2009;Pérez-Torres et al, 2018).…”

“…Among these LGBT+ YouTubers, Pérez-Torres et al (2018) identifies two types of identity treatment: gender identity together with sexual identity, and vocational identity. In this research, we want to focus on the former, as in the LGBT+ YouTuber videos one can observe how they explain the process they have followed (and still follow) on the construction of their gender and sexual identity, explaining to their audiences what their reasons were to decide between one orientation or the other, what gender they identify with, how and when it happened, what the problems were and the doubts they had, how they were supported or not by their environment and family, etc.…”

“…In this research, we want to focus on the former, as in the LGBT+ YouTuber videos one can observe how they explain the process they have followed (and still follow) on the construction of their gender and sexual identity, explaining to their audiences what their reasons were to decide between one orientation or the other, what gender they identify with, how and when it happened, what the problems were and the doubts they had, how they were supported or not by their environment and family, etc. Ultimately, these YouTubers transmit their emotional experiences about their processes of gender and sexual identity construction, as their videos related to sexual orientation are the most viewed ones (Pérez-Torres et al, 2018).…”