Media and Adolescent Identity Development

Abstract

Research on media and adolescent identity development suggests that the growing variety of media with which adolescents interact and the expanded role of social media in the lives of teens play a significant role in adolescent identity development. Youths use media for identity exploration, experimentation, and expression, which may be particularly important for marginalized youths. However, these opportunities must also be examined in light of the risks of fragmentation, reinforcing stereotypes, and adoption of negative identity, among others. Future research should include longitudinal studies and examinations of the relative impact of different uses of media for identity work.

Living in a digital world: Understanding the development of adolescent emotional adjustment in the context of digital technologies.

“…Over a very short period, these technologies have become ubiquitous. Smartphone ownership in the United States, for example, increased from 35% in 2011 to over 80% in 2019(Anderson, 2019 and became even higher during the COVID-19 pandemic (Marciano et al, 2022). Although school-aged and even younger children frequently use smartphones and social media (despite stated age minimums of 13 by many social media platforms; Pew Research Center, 2020), much of what we know about usage patterns and implications for emotional development are anchored in adolescence.…”

“…We also focus on research with adolescents. Adolescents are heavy users of digital technology (Anderson & Jiang, 2018), and CMC facilitates key goals and challenges during this developmental period (Dahl et al, 2018), including identity exploration (Middaugh, 2019) and peer socialization (Nesi et al, 2018;Spies Shapiro & Margolin, 2014). Moreover, adolescence is a period of increased risk for problems with emotional adjustment (Costello et al, 2003;Davey et al, 2008), for instance, anxiety (Somerville et al, 2010;Spielberg et al, 2019), depression (Davey et al, 2008;Whittle et al, 2014), and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (Ho et al, 2022).…”