![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Social networking sites (SNSs) provide a set of affordances that allow young adults to represent various aspects of their gendered identities and construct their identity-related experiences. This paper adopts Goffman’s concepts in relation to social media and his dramaturgical theories of the self as a framework for the study of online self-presentation. The paper uses the Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method Design. The study conducted a quantitative survey of 110 college students followed by qualitative semi-structured interviews with a group of 30 students to examine how college students from four Emirati universities appropriate social media to engage in online self-representations of their gendered identities. The findings suggest that SNSs serve as a liberating force in a cultural context where traditional rules are changing and young adults are at the forefront of driving these changes.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).