Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace

19 Oct 09

Howard Rheingold

Moral panics are a common reaction to teenagers when they engage in practices not understood by adult culture. There were moral panics over rock&roll, television, jazz and even reading novels in the early 1800s
Every day, we dress ourselves in a set of clothes that conveys something about our identity - what we do for a living, how we fit into the socio-economic class hierarchy, what our interests are, etc. This is identity production. Around middle school, American teens begin actively engaging in identity production as they turn from their parents to their peers as their primary influencers and group dynamics take hold.

Youth look to older teens and the media to get cues about what to wear, how to act, and what's cool. Most teens are concerned with resolving how they perceive themselves with how they are perceived. To learn this requires trying out different performances, receiving feedback from peers and figuring out how to modify fashion, body posture and language to better give off the intended impression. These practices are critical to socialization, particularly for youth beginning to engage with the broader social world.

Because the teenage years are a liminal period between childhood and adulthood, teens are often waffling between those identities, misbehaving like kids while trying to show their maturity in order to gain rights. Participating in distinctly adult practices is part of exploring growing up. Both adults and the media remind us that vices like sexual interactions, smoking and drinking are meant for adults only, only making them more appealing. More importantly, through age restrictions, our culture signals that being associated with these vices is equal to maturity.

The dynamics of identity production play out visibly on MySpace. Profiles are digital bodies, public displays of identity where people can explore impression management [2]. Because the digital world requires people to write themselves into being [3], profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media. Explicit reactions to their online presence offers valuable feedback. The goal is to look cool and receive peer validation.
9 more annotations...
- Friends are _expected_ to comment as a sign of their affection. Furthermore, a comment to a friend's profile or photo is intended to be reciprocated.
- The rules of friending are also very important. It is important to be connected to all of your friends, your idols and the people you respect. Attention-seekers and musicians often seek to be friended by as many people as possible, but most people are concerned with only those that they know or think are cool. Of course, a link does not necessarily mean a relationship or even an interest in getting to know the person. "Thanks for the add" is a common comment that people write in reaction to being friended by interesting people.
- So what exactly are teens _doing_ on MySpace? Simple: they're hanging out.
- For many teens, hanging out has moved online.
- "full-time always-on intimate communities"
- Teenager's space segmentation is slightly different. Most of their space is controlled space. Adults with authority control the home, the school, and most activity spaces. Teens are told where to be, what to do and how to do it. Because teens feel a lack of control at home, many don't see it as their private space.
  
  To them, private space is youth space and it is primarily found in the interstices of controlled space. These are the places where youth gather to hang out amongst friends and make public or controlled spaces their own. Bedrooms with closed doors, for example.
  
  Adult public spaces are typically controlled spaces for teens. Their public space is where peers gather en masse; this is where presentation of self really matters. It may be viewable to adults, but it is really peers that matter.
- Teens have increasingly less access to public space.
- Additionally, structured activities in controlled spaces are on the rise.
- By going virtual, digital technologies allow youth to (re)create private and public youth space while physically in controlled spaces

31 Jul 09

Ryan Bretag

identity socialnetworking

20 Apr 09

kristie williamson

14 Apr 09

Tan Kian Boon

Most teens are concerned with resolving how they perceive themselves with how they are perceived.
profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media.
3 more annotations...
- The goal is to look cool and receive peer validation
- , because imagery can be staged, it is often difficult to tell if photos are a representation of behaviors or a re-presentation of them.
- comments are a form of cultural currency

18 Mar 09

Gabriel Nakaima

07 Mar 09

Susan Waterworth

Cool article about social networking, including why some adults worry about it. Understandable and interesting.

Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Adults often worry about the amount of time that youth spend online, arguing that the digital does not replace the physical. Most teens would agree. It is not the technology that encourages youth to spend time online - it's the lack of mobility and access to youth space where they can hang out uninterrupted.

participatory culture media digital literacy

06 Feb 09

Jimmy Breeze

technology marketing internet web2.0 society culture design research media psychology socialnetworks youth

03 Nov 08

Dorota Tylus

socialnetworks digital_identity

30 Nov 07

Sue Maberry

MediaStudies myspace

11 Nov 07

Adriana Lukas

fantastic stuff... this is just focus on teens but similar shifts are occurring in other social levels. Time to start really looking at that as that provide a key to understanding the potential applications.

importedfurl MySpace delicious

28 Sep 07

Fran Hughes

myspace social_networking danah_boyd research

10 Nov 06

Roger Stack

digital identity

digital_natives

23 Oct 06

Sonya Schryer Norris

social networking

20 Oct 06

Miriam Verburg

danah boyd paper on myspace youth culture

academic research_Mediastudies coms627

04 Aug 06

gmar10

danah boyd
American Association for the Advancement of Science
February 19, 2006

18 Jun 06

Graham Stanley

myspace web2.0 socialsoftware

17 Jun 06

Scott Leslie

academic Identity social software

11 Jun 06

AlexReid

Danah Boyd's article on the social role of MySpace

myspace culture identity socialsoftware social software pwr129 web2.0 pwr 209

14 Apr 06

Bob McFarland

Research

Bo McFarland

Research

24 Mar 06

SibiPoortman

Why MySpace is more popular than Google (and perhaps useful as e-portfolio)

e-portfolio spaces virtual identity social networks

20 Mar 06

Marc Ordinas i Llopis

culture identity

09 Mar 06

Sam King

01 Mar 06

David Jennings

community myspace research Digital music

I want to talk with you today about how teenagers are using a website called MySpace.com. I will briefly describe the site and then discuss how youth use it for identity production and socialization in contemporary American society. I have been following MySpace since its launch in 2003. Initially, it was the home to 20-somethings interested in indie music in Los Angeles. Today, you will be hard pressed to find an American teenager who does not know about the site, regardless of whether or not they participate. Over 50 million accounts have been created and the majority of participants are what would be labeled youth - ages 14-24. MySpace has more pageviews per day than any site on the web except Yahoo! (yes, more than Google or MSN).

27 Feb 06

Leigh Blackall

I want to talk with you today about how teenagers are using a website called MySpace.com. I will briefly describe the site and then discuss how youth use it for identity production and socialization in contemporary American society.

digitalnetworkliteracy networkedlearning onlineID

26 Feb 06

David Dawson

General Imported Bookmarks

25 Feb 06

Kytelae

24 Feb 06

Jaemi K

MySpaceArticles SocialNetworking YouthOnline

Sebastian Geib

myspace culture identity media

Sue Thomas

Chap 1: Charting the Territory

Michel Bauwens

P2P-Subjectivity P2P-Sociology Identity P2P

23 Feb 06

Martin Lindner

MySpace

socialsoftware MicroGap deli

Matt Koidin

Web Design & Technology Social Networking

I want to talk with you today about how teenagers are using a website called MySpace.com. I will briefly describe the site and then discuss how youth use it for identity production and socialization in contemporary American society.