Introduction
The task of identity formation has never been more relevant than in the digital age. Easy and affordable access to smartphones puts the question of how people create their selves at the top of current social psychology and cultural studies' agendas. The concept of self-identity formation in the age of social media is a complex, multifaceted issue that encompasses the formulation of both personal and cultural identity. In this research, the area of interest covers identity-related issues in the context of the digital age. The 'digital age' is defined as a historical period marked by the triumph of new media and digital technologies. Social media are considered a platform through which inhabitants of the digital age are likely to search for new forms of personal and cultural identity. In this work, the concept of identity formation in the digital age is understood as fundamentally connected to a dynamic shift in people's perceptions of self, emotions, culture, and society. The adaptation of self-identity formation to digital conditions has also fueled the redefining of how identity operationalizes personal traits, characteristics, values, and desires. This new identity formation strategy has been named 'liquid feedback', a characterization of human behavior that is predominantly shallow, superficial, impulsive, and also short-lived.
The question of whether it is possible to sketch stable identities quickly emerges from an analysis of applying self-identity theory in the digital age. Data clustering calls for a number of serious changes in the conceptualization of identity in the digital age. Our current understanding of the complex relationship between individuals and cultures or societies brings up a series of dilemmas, some of which are presented in the form of the following questions: What are the real identities of Internet users? Who can be considered a digital native and why? Have we really changed? How have social media impacted the articulation of personal narratives?
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Theoretical Concepts in Identity Formation
Theoretical frameworks in the field of identity formation come from different branches of knowledge, notably psychology, sociology, and ethnicity and gender studies. Numerous aspects of human life and conduct are important for the development of identity, such as personal characteristics, socio-cultural background, natural or chosen affinities, etc. Any discussion on identity must observe the various layers at which every individual is situated and influenced by, ranging from personal characteristics and socio-economic factors to societal and global influences. Psychological theories approach identity from the perspective of the self-concept as an aspect of personal identity, while sociology discusses it as a part of social identity. When considering social media and technological identity formation, the concepts of self-concept and identity, narrativity, and performativity come into focus. Thus, it will be especially interesting to draw on the following perspectives on identity: as narrativity in personal identity according to micro-sociological theories and in social identity according to various theorists.
Individual identity formation has been highlighted as a processing of narrative, a negation of self-imposed identity in order to offer an alternative self. Postmodern communications theorists advocate a fluid personal and social identity based on multiplicity, in an effort to expand the potential of communication, making the boundary between personal and collective identity provide information in the current postmodern condition. Online environments provide entirely new grounds and potential for this, since an extended version of the theory of the social self is further cultivated, as "the self can never be entirely deprivatized." In terms of new personal identity formation, several libertarian visions have sprouted, providing for a whole cabaret of ways for life to be led. Social networks and the internet provide a necessary playground for the reasons cited above. The new individual is regarded as fluid, multiple, and in an almost continuous reinvention. This also reflects in the social, collectively established identities.
Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms are a context in which individuals express their personal identity and cultivate their unique self. Self-expression on this type of computer-mediated communication engenders co-creation of personal identity, using social media affordances under recontextualized terms according to intrapersonal desires and user demands. The settings different platforms propose encourage individual users to fill them according to their prearranged free negotiation spaces. Thus, users curate central aspects of auto-presentation by positioning themselves while digitally making explicit at least one of their target identities in their self-presentation. Through different strategies, users exercise freedom of self-representation on social media, collaborating in the building of an elective digital culture. The current appearance of social media platforms entwines technology with current culture, which allows self-expression to rely mainly on visual content. In addition to encouraging theatrical presentations of identity, self-exhibition on social media invites users and audiences to embody a part of the presentation game by conventional meaning creation and reinforcing ethos-building or lack thereof.
The user is herself, but also brand-contracted, in any case offering and advocating for multiple 'I.' The biographic potential inherent in social media dynamics constitutes an unfolding of life story produced in real time. Different networking capabilities structured by social media platforms contribute to auto-representation through personal branding, particulation, and story selling. The register of narrative may play an active role in shaping self-presentation regarding evaluation of bandwidth and content. User content is available to be de-temporalized, pseudo-contextualized, and de-conceptualized. Feedback mechanisms reinforce a user’s self-committed centering and entitlement. Communication dramaturgy on social media oscillates between portraying its highly diminished self and building a proprietary narrative. Authentic presence is balanced with contrived presence, the spectacle of normality, and controlled normality. The potential for dramatic visibility highly encourages public appearance for inherently private motivations. Declarations for authenticity and demands for acknowledgment mark the tension towards the performative nature of self-presentation on social media. A communicative line promotes the aesthetics of participation and verifies authenticity by engagement metrics. Trends illustrate that public interest is constant and increasing. Participation from a user base evinces extraordinary levels of engagement, and multiple units participating evoke viral empathy. Different audiences react to distinct strategies and proportions of self-disclosure, the most balanced ones presenting the lowest levels of rejection.
Cultural Identity on Social Media
A deeper understanding of the relationship between digital media and cultural identity is possible through situating issues of cultural identity within a larger framework including representation and self-expression. Digital platforms can both engage and disengage from traditional representations and stereotypes, and it is important to investigate how social media can be sites of both stabilizing and contested practices. Social media sites host a multiplicity of cultural narratives, offering microcosms of commonalities and differences, and individual postings include elements of personal and cultural identity, here understood as representations of collective aspects of cultural relations. Manifest identity, worthy of recognition and representation, is, indeed, a personal reflection of the cultural stories that make up an individual's culturally formed mythistory.
Social media, certainly, also offer an opportunity for intercultural and interfaith communication and understanding both in terms of international and intra-national community cohesion and relations. Visual platforms such as Instagram abound with representations suggestive of particular cultural or national narratives. These sections tell something of the role of people's personal identities in negotiating the narratives, both national and cross-cultural, of personal and cultural identities. From the Aesthetics of Religion to Hobby Art: some Instagram postings, religion is a key factor in many people's subjective and interpersonal identities, and their artworks may be described as a key element in the construction and representation of these narratives. The personal is political narrative is played out on social media, and as gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, class, and many other often marginalized positionalities are diversified and represented across digital platforms, social media can help enact critical and emancipatory narratives of increased diversity and inclusion.
Digital Identity Formation
The digital age has brought many new facets to the formation of a personal identity, which can present distinct opportunities and challenges. The rise of cyberbullying has made personal identity vulnerable to the judgment of a global community, which uses the same connectivity provided by the internet to destroy personal reputation and self-esteem. Similarly, the post-truth era has made it easy to use misinformation as a weapon to deconstruct personal identity by spreading false and damaging information with which an individual must now vocally disagree. Furthermore, identity theft now presents the risk of someone physically assuming the identity created digitally, which blurs the line between personal and digital identity. On the other hand, social media directly connects individuals with a larger community that can provide support, which is important in the formation of personal or cultural identity. Currently, a negative correlation between social media use and mental health has been established, suggesting that easy social comparison can lead to lower self-esteem. However, this research is focused on teenagers and college students, primarily women or non-binary individuals, suggesting that those who do not measure up to current beauty ideals are more at risk. On an individual level, social media provides an opportunity to reconnect with multiple cultural identities. The prospect of integrating a seemingly dichotomous identity as a nomad is championed in popular media as empowering self-expression.
Currently, social media, virtual reality, and similar platforms allow for this individual cultural exploration within a public space. Furthermore, technologies have the capacity to create a safe, private space for this exploration of a mutable self. Psychotherapy operates on the idea of an individual repressed self that must be brought to the surface in order to achieve mental wellness. In that context, the creation of this self is one of the main priorities in psychiatric and psychological practices. Thus, we can see how the digital interactions that are available to us can be a tool for an individual to form their identity in whatever manner they see fit. We must be aware of these key issues in the digital age for the fashioning of identity. With clear areas of concern, namely freedom of access being a threat to truth, a greater self-examination can be reached. The potential positives and negatives must be considered. Incorporating private cyberspace as an inner clinic within the therapeutic process may offer a way of facilitating an understanding of our subjective identity in the millennial era. By exploring who we present ourselves as and what this means, we engage in the identity formation process.
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