HOW DOES MEDIATIC IDENTITY INFLUENCE YOUNG PEOPLE?
We interviewed Moisés Esteban-Guitart, an expert in Identity research.
Authors: Team of young reporters from CEMU
February 14, 2023. Have you ever wondered who I am, where I am going in life and what is my place in society? According to some experts like Moisés Esteban-Guitart, Alexander Mosquera or David Buckingham, identity consists of reflecting on oneself with respect to the world. When we try to answer these questions through social networks or the Internet, we are building our media identity. Digital media have become identity managers. But, be careful, digital media, in turn, can be generators of media identities among adolescents since they show content that can influence them, to make them see a manipulated idea of themselves.
The Study Center Pew shows that the 73% of the young population use internet every day. A report by «Common Sense Media» explains that young people spend between 8-9 hours surfing digital media and social networks.
Moisés Esteban-Guitart, a researcher and professor at the University of Gerona (Spain), who is dedicated to understanding the construction of human identity in relation to Educational Psychology, presented his vision of media identity during an interview with our boys on CEMU Radio Antenna.
We contacted with Esteban-Guitart to help us to understand better such a complex concept that is part of our daily life as young people. «Media Identity could be defined as our being that is projected and presented through digital, social media, through different platforms.»
If we talk about communication and information technologies, today practically all of us have televisions at home, but as this expert tells us, now we also have «tablets» and mobile phones, among other technological elements. Moisés underlines the limits that should be set when it comes to the use of these technologies by the youngest, because on many occasions their use replaces other social activities. He does not see a bad thing that people enjoy these technologies, but when their use changes and replaces other activities such as family conversations, outings with friends or other activities; there its use if it will be harmful.
Alexander Mosquera, a member of the research laboratory of the Faculty of Science, of the University of Zulia (Venezuela), believes that children cannot be without mobile phones, an argument with which Esteban-Guitart agrees. For our protagonist, now a days, not having a mobile phone is almost impossible, but he also believes that you have to learn to use it, how and when. He believes that the mobile phone gives a lot of access to different social networks, such as YouTube, Instagram, or WhatsApp and by using it to create a media identity, which is why it is partly beneficial. In addition, the use of these social networks can facilitate relationships between people by being at distance, and young people can be located by their families, since, by spending all day on the network and publishing everything they do, it is easy to find out everything.
This is where the mosaic identity comes in, which according to Sherry Turkle is one of the greatest advantages for the individual that screens, and cyberspace offer. It is about the possibility of simulating an identity. In other words, this means that in networks you can create different versions of yourself. This makes children and young people take advantage of it to create an ideal character, but with a parallel life, so as not to show who they really are. In fact, one can design different selves, each adapted to a different digital network. Our identity is reflected in the form of a mosaic according to what we publish on the different social networks.
Alexander Mosquera comments that «the mobile phone is a tool that defines us», an idea with which Esteban-Guitart agrees. Spanish relates this issue to media identity because in some way «the mobile is like our third arm” since we really go everywhere with that device.
David Buckingham, an English academic specializing in media and communications, agrees with Esteban-Guitart when describing social networks as neutral, they are neither so good nor so bad, as they both benefit and harm young people. Both experts show great concern about mental illnesses such as depression in young people. They agree that, today, there are more and more boys and girls with these problems, which are also partly a consequence of that identity that is displayed on networks. Many young people receive negative comments and feel trampled on by the cowardly “courage” of being able to say things from behind a camera.
And we can link this idea to the fact that it is possible for each young person or any person to create their identity based on what strangers say or do. This means that an identity is created from what is seen on networks or the comments we read or receive. Esteban-Guitart refers to a study on the Construction of Identity: «there is a very important factor that is, precisely, the significant others. That is, from a psychological point of view, perhaps the most essential aspect of one’s identity is not oneself, but the other”. In other words, after all, the opinion of others matters more than one’s own. For this reason, it would be advisable to have your own identity very marked and that when showing it the comments of others would not influence. And this leads us to the fact that this expert believes that showing identity through networks is an advance since, in the end, we are connected all day and it is a fast and dynamic way of getting to know each other or leaving information about yourself to find a job or other activities, but it is true that certain limits must be set.
In conclusion, social networks have greatly changed our lives, our thoughts, and our way of relating, so it is important to be up to date, to be aware of how our identity is built and, above all, to be yourself no matter what they say. others.
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