From Youthful Experimentation to Professional Identity: Understanding Identity Transitions in Social Media

Abstract

The process of self-presentation is significantly complicated for people growing up with social media. Many individuals have time-stamped digital footprints in social media from early youth to adulthood. However, little is known about long-term consequences for these individuals, their experience of time and their identity transition from youthful experimentation to a professional identity in social media. Through 15 in-depth interviews, our study explores challenges concerning identity transition and impression management in social media for young adults who have recently entered working life as journalists. Our participants described how they curated their image and self-censored both their previous and current self-generated content in social media. We also find that many have actively opted for passive and peace-keeping self-presentation and use of social media or for turning their usage into private messaging platforms, masking their online identity. Some participants indicated they felt trapped by their own identity making in social media.

Shape Shifting Across Social Media

“…Permanence of posts, especially on older platforms, is a concern reported across the literature, particularly in terms of identity transitions during childhood and adolescence (Brandtzaeg & Caparro-Dominguez, 2020;Brandtzaeg & Lüders, 2018). While some research has shown that some participants are fond and reflective of how they portrayed their past identities, where they may not feel a need to edit or erase these memory logs; however, this was not always be the case (Bates et al, 2020).…”

“…While some research has shown that some participants are fond and reflective of how they portrayed their past identities, where they may not feel a need to edit or erase these memory logs; however, this was not always be the case (Bates et al, 2020). For instance, online identity archives undoubtedly capture artifacts that can sometimes raise privacy concerns (Brandtzaeg & Caparro-Dominguez, 2020;Brandtzaeg & Lüders, 2018), especially when these were inappropriately used (Bates et al, 2020). For example, P6 described her "creepy experience," with one of her professional headshots, which was named firstname_surname for her convenience.…”

“…However, when there are clear discrepancies (known to the user or not), there can be audience clashes, where the user will receive potentially negative feedback due to these discrepancies. For example, P10 used Instagram to show her makeup artistry portfolio and as this developed over time, she began to experiment with different makeup styles: "I started doing drag makeup, and that upset quite a few people,"-this of course "rocked the boat" as these new images were outside of her audiences desired range, meaning a lack of maintaining "peacekeeping" self-presentations" (Brandtzaeg & Caparro-Dominguez, 2020;DeVito et al, 2018). This dampened her Instagram experience to the point that she deleted her account as she felt the need to "micromanage" her content and it became "very unnatural."…”

Time Collapse in Social Media: Extending the Context Collapse

“…In 2015 (Brandtzaeg & Chaparro Domínguez, 2018), we conducted 15 in-depth interviews with younger journalists from Spain (SP) and Norway (NO) to investigate how young people used Facebook and Twitter in particular and social media in general for content sharing and self-presentation in both their private and professional lives. The interviewees ranged from 21 to 26 years old with a median age of 23 years and comprised nine women and six men.…”

Accelerated Professional Identity Development Through Social Network Sites

“…It is commonplace that SNSs have become public information spaces in which information on almost any subject or field of interest can be found, presented, and discussed. Such public information spaces are often created by individuals who share not only information, but also their life events and personal information in their profiles, thereby making the boundaries between the personal information space and the public information space unclear (Brandtzaeg & Chaparro-Domínguez, 2020;Chayko, 2019;Cheek & Øby, 2019;Kasperiuniene & Zydziunaite, 2019;Manaca & Ranieri 2017). Such a blurring of spaces turns personal information management actions -keeping, organizing, and retrieving -into a social activity.…”