Ground Level

The category of “emerging adults” plays a significant role in understanding the behavior of a majority of the members of the Facebook population. The classification of “emerging adults” is something somewhat new within and of itself, considering that even as recent as the 1970s, the average 21 year old female was “married or about to be married, caring for a newborn or expecting one soon, done with education or about to be done, and settled into a long-term job or the role of full-time mother” (Arnett, 2000).  Today, 79.1% percent of all men between the age of 20 and 24 and 69.1% of all women in this age group have never been married, and about 40% of which are still getting an education (US Census Bureau, 2007). The fact that so many people in this age group do not find long-term jobs, are not married, and are still working on their education provides them with an opportunity different from previous generations. They have a chance to explore themselves and the possibilities of who they are and what they would like to become in a very gradual process that has not existed before, and still does not exist in many parts of the world today.

This new opportunity and time to explore the self can be a positive and exciting experience, but at the same time is filled with stresses and anxieties. Sources such as “globalization, the decline of the welfare state, increasing social mobility, greater flexibility in employment, insecurity in personal relationships—all these developments are contributing to a sense of fragmentation and uncertainty in which the traditional sources for identity formation are no longer so straightforward or easily available (Buckingham, 2008).” Within a larger world, with so many different choices, understanding one’s self and one’s place within the rest of society becomes more difficult. Traditional sources, referring to the nuclear family, the neighborhood church, and even school, instead of being the main or only influence in the lives of ordinary people, are just one of many sources for identity formation that are available today, particularly with the advent of the internet and its easy access to any and all members of the first world. People today are therefore more prone to live in a state of continuous construction and reconstruction of their identities. According to the definition by Jeffrey Arnett, five particular features unique to this age group alone capture the idea of “emerging adulthood”.  First, it is the “age of identity exploration,” or the age of exploring possibilities, particularly in relation to love and work. Second, it is the “age of instability” in that there is constant flux and insecurity in the self and their social worlds. Third, it is the most self-focused age of life. This is possible because they are free of the major responsibilities that are attributed to adulthood and of family and parents who control their lives. Fourth, it is also the “age of feeling in-between,” and finally, it is the age of possibilities because there is an unparalleled opportunity to change their lives in any way (Arnett, 2000).

Emerging adults make up the largest group of users on Facebook today. The fact that they are in an age of deep self-exploration, identification, and understanding makes it a group that would be very likely to display identity and gender characteristics on their profiles as a result of their self-focused lifestyles and their constant exploration of themselves. Correlating directly with this idea is the concept of the fluid, flexible identity that undergoes continual negotiations. This notion goes hand in hand with the social constructionist approach of identity, as well many other sociologists views on identity, such as Michel Foucault, Richard Jenkins, and Zygmunt Bauman. There is a vast amount of research that focuses on the experience of identity formation and construction, and these theorists seem to agree that the process is generally a tumultuous, critically challenging, experience(Jenkins 2004, Foucault 1979, Bauman 2004). Erik Erikson, for example, describes the psychological development process as an eight-stage process, each stage ushered in with some degree of psychological conflict. Conflicts are resolved when one is able to settle the disagreement between the identity and “role confusion” that the individual feels (Erickson, 1968). Erikson sees youth as a particularly critical period in identity construction because individuals must overcome uncertainty and become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses as well as their unique features in comparison with others. This fact is a fundamental concept to consider when looking at the implications of identity in digital media/social networking sites. In this day and age, it is clear that young people are struggling internally to understand and find a place for themselves in society, and are often using networking sites to help themselves do so. Recent research conducted by Sandra Weber and Claudia Mitchell on young people’s everyday experiences of new technologies are in agreement with these fundamental theories of the fluidity of identity, concluding that young people create a “bricolage” (a French term for a construction or creation using whatever material that is available) to form their identity and often present themselves this way online (Weber et al, 2008).

Also of specific importance is Erik Erikson’s idea of “psychosocial moratorium” which is defined as a certain extent of time in which youths take time to experiment with different potential identities. It can be compared to a “time out” in life that young adults often take to stop and consider who they are and test out what kind of self they would like to maintain and to become. The idea of a psychosocial moratorium is related to youth, and it is not supposed to extend into adulthood or older age.  However, I argue that psychosocial moratorium has become a continuous state for many young adults and even some adults. For one, psychosocial moratorium can be compared to anthropologist Grant McCracken’s idea of “transformations.” According to McCracken, most societies have always been transformational ones that promote its members to understand and entertain through changing and adapting their identities in various ways at various times (McCracken, 2003). He claims, however that a new phenomenon has developed in recent decades, as “youth cultures took power away from cultural elites and put it in the hands of commercial forces, and increasingly, the hands of individual teens” creating a whole generation of people who now only feel entertained when they are “transforming” themselves. Whether it be through exploring other possible selves, pretending to be someone else, or just creating new selves via sources like Role Playing Games (RPG) online and/or through video games, it is clear that transformation is well embraced and popular within today’s society. Other media also fosters and encourages this behavior, as can be seen through popular television shows that focus on viewer participation (such as American Idol) or the plethora of reality television shows that requires the involvement of the ordinary citizen in order to function as a program on air (McCracken, 2003).

When considering the relationship between the young adults and social networking sites, it is easy to see why these processes of “transformation,” and “psychosocial moratorium,” would underlie young people’s intense involvement and enrapture by these digital media outlets. Platforms such as Facebook give opportunities for young adults to take a “time out” and involve themselves in the transformation of their identity.  Susannah Stern’s research on young people and personal websites supports this general idea, suggesting that there is an “unexpected pleasure and value” young adults feel when expressing themselves publicly via their personal sites. She also notes the importance of the ability to self-reflect and evaluate one’s self in comparison to others, which helps create a better understanding of the self, while also providing a cathartic release of pent up frustrations or emotions by publishing their thoughts online (Stern, 2008). Previous research shows just how insecure and confused identity can be today and how central the digital world has become in helping these identities explore and express themselves. This explains why Facebook would be a key source in finding overarching patterns in identity and gender identity presentation, and therefore would support my central claim that Facebook provides an easily accessible glimpse of the norms and stereotypes of a specific group.

When discussing social networking sites and the individual identity, it is difficult not to also consider Erving Goffman’s classic theory of dramaturgy in social interaction. This must be addressed in order to clarify the distinction between the behavior as portrayed by the individual online, and the person that exists offline. Because a Facebook profile can only be a virtual representation of the person, distinguishing between intent and non-intent in presentation can be difficult, and often times there is a disparity between the semi-static presentation of the self online and the self in the “real world.” Understanding the difference between the public and private self is an acknowledgment that there is no way in which Facebook could produce a realistic or complete depiction of the individual identity as it exists outside of the virtual world, though it may give very close approximations. Goffman distinguishes between the two kinds of behaviors that occur on stage and off stage, suggesting that “back stage” behavior is probably more honest and truthful than behavior that occurs on “front stage.” This is mainly because of the social constraints, rules, norms, and guidelines that one must acknowledge and obey when being watched or interacting with others on “front stage” as opposed to the privacy or self-rule that one is allowed when alone or among intimates “back stage” and away from prying eyes (Goffman, 1959).

Social networking sites have everything to do with the melding of the public and private selves, or “front stage” and “back stage” behavior. Social networking sites are at once something a person participates in alone to browse at one’s leisure and pleasure, as well as something that is presented to any member of the public who has access to the website at any given moment. Goffman’s ideas are particularly important in understanding social interaction on these websites because rules and etiquette are essential in the virtual world and because of the way in which identity can be constructed publicly on these sites.  Stern’s work on young people and personal websites suggests the importance of Goffman’s theory as well, explaining that one of the main concerns behind personal websites is the appearance of the self to one’s self as well as to one’s assumed audiences. Considering this research and Goffman’s theories, it again becomes clear how important Facebook is as a platform for identity presentation and exploration today, and therefore makes it possible to search and find patterns of identity representation amongst users, particularly in the same age group.

As Facebook rises in its popularity and influence, it only makes sense that it would play a role in constructing and enforcing gender and identity norms within our society, particularly among impressionable age groups. Previous research on gender and identity development supports this idea, stating “gendered-type behavior or gender differences emerge and are maintained to the extent that males’ and females’ selves are being shaped differently by the social context during development” (Hannover, 2000). Facebook is clearly one such social context utilized by emerging adults during development, a social context that is significant in its complete newness historically, as well as its obsessive use among younger generations. If one were to adhere to the social constructionist theories of gender as a manifestation of social constructs and institutionalized norms, it becomes more likely that a tool like Facebook truly does play an active role in promoting norms and stereotypes within gender and identity, particularly if we consider gender identity in the same sociological framework that we consider identity—something constantly in flux and explored.

Moreover, Hannover suggests that depending on their sex, people incorporate more stereotypically masculine or more stereotypically feminine knowledge into their selves, “whenever situational or chronic contextual sources activate gender-related self-knowledge.” Emerging adulthood and youth can be considered such a context in which gender-related self-perceptions are activated, particularly within the world of Facebook when representation of the self must be “clear” so as to avoid the ever-uncomfortable chance of ambiguity. Research conducted in the past year on the social networking site called Myspace™ suggests that social networking sites do indeed parallel and intensify gender norms that exist offline, with strong pressures to objectify the female body (Manago, et al 2008). It is suggested that this happens because of the increased use of the Internet to provide the means of attaining sexual/matchmaking goals, as well as for users to find ways of fulfilling intimacy and sexual needs, as these are perceived as goals (Hannover, 2000; Deux & Major, 1987; Marahan-Martin, 2001). Further study on the social networking platform Myspace.com has also found that social networking sites such as Myspace.com can be used as a social tool in analyzing the patterns of gendered identity. This research, through the use of a small sample population, shows there was a difference in patterns of gender identity in males and females on MySpace profiles (Magnuson & Dundes, 2008).  This research solidifies the possibility of using Facebook for a very similar study on presentation of the self on social networking sites.

Ultimately, these ideas indicate that there is a convergence of forces producing the identities depicted on social networking websites and that social context influences identity and gender presentation in such a way that it can be accounted for on a social networking website such as Facebook. To put it more succinctly, Facebook is proving itself to be a kind of social institution where people learn about the behavior and norms of a greater culture. Spending time on Facebook can be considered a kind of socialization process that is popularly accepted by today’s younger generations as legitimate. This glance at previous research also allows for a clear possibility for Facebook to be an active agent in promoting existing identity and gender norms and stereotypes while of course creating new norms as well.