Adolescent identities in the cyberworld

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to understand how adolescents express their identities in virtual worlds. Fifty-nine South African high school learners (females = 51%) completed an interview and survey regarding their online interactions important for their personal identities. The adolescents completed think aloud interviews (verbalisations) and surveys which focussed on behaviour, beliefs, attitudes, opinions, feelings, expectations, self-classification, and level of involvement with social media. The data were thematically analysed and profiled by theme utilising frequency distributions. The results suggest adolescents to ‘try out’ new identities; including assumed and idealised identities. They self-report to do and say things online that they ordinarily would not do offline for social desirability reasons. Adolescents appear to inhabit two reality worlds important for the enactment of the identities they construct with online friends and strangers.

Keywords:

• digital technology
• internet
• adolescents
• identity
• cyberspace
• online personas
• role playing