Lecture 9-Learning & Connecting in Online Environments: Social Media, Spaces of Harm or Help?

the quiz we took in class

• I got a casual browser

• do we compare ourselves online?

• do we self-evaluate?

• there are institutional expectation that we are expected to follow due to the dominant views of social media

benefits of social media

• informational support

  • educating about specific issues

  • resources for parents

  • ex. supporting trans youth

• appraisal support

  • higher self-esteem

  • validating experience by content that resonated

  • we see content and we can recognize that others feel the same way and we can feel validated in our experiences

  • supporting the things we are interested in

• identity experimentation

  • ex. trans youth and what they re experiencing they can see this on social media

• emotional support

  • increased perception of social support —> buffer to perceived threats and improving coping

  • social medial can form a place of inclusion because there is nothing else like it

  • space for inclusion where you may feel excluded in the physical world

harms of social media

• personal harassment

  • anonymous shaming

  • process of othering and exclusion

• victimizations and exclusion from within their online community

  • ex posts about the right way to be transgender

• sleep health impacted

• girls may be more susceptible to negative impacts on body image, negative appraisal

• increased aggressive actions

• suicide rates increased

• parents must share with children how to be safe on social media

• develop your life offline first

how can social media influence children’s socialization and identity formation?

• children may not feel included or connected to peers bc of the identity formation aspect

• forming relationships

• constructing their “place” in the world

• sense of belonging or disconnection from self, family and community

(Pérez-Torres, 2024) Social media: a digital social mirror for identity development during adolescence.

• this article shows that social media serves as a key setting for adolescents to build and explore their identity

• social media actively shapes how adolescents define themselves

• youth use social media to curate and control how they appear to others through images, selective content

• the audiences feedback pos or neg influences self-esteem, validation and social belonging

• youth compare themselves to peers or influences

• Psychologists, educators, and parents should consider how self-presentation, feedback, and social comparison online shape youths’ self-concept and identity trajectories.