Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have introduced new affordances for communication, social connection, and identity development during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Yet, research studies that aim to establish universal effects of social media on psychological development are inherently flawed because how we select, co-create, and interpret our experiences with social media influence how they affect and create us. Therefore, my research conceptualizes young people as active agents in their socialization with social media. In this talk, I will describe two recent studies my students and I have conducted that illustrate the role of social media in gender identity development among contemporary youth in the U.S. The first study focuses on gender differences in the purposes of adolescents’ social media use and examines how dominant cultural ideologies for masculinity and femininity shape adolescents’ motivations to use social media in particular ways (e.g., girls using social media for the purpose of appearance validation; boys using social media for the purpose of competitive activity bonding). In the second study, I will discuss the role of social media in the growing proliferation of diverse gender and sexuality expressions, such as gender non-binary and pansexuality among Generation Z. Our research suggests that LGBTQ+ youth use a variety of social media platforms to negotiate traditional gender narratives and co-construct new meanings for gender and sexuality as they seek a sense of authenticity between their internal experiences of gender and sexuality and their outward expressions via digital representations. Together the studies demonstrate how adolescents and emerging adults are agents of cultural change (and continuity) in worldviews on gender as they use social media to develop their identities and social relations.
Kaveri Subrahmanyam is Dean, College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville. Subrahmanyam received her Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA and was at the faculty at Cal State Los Angeles from 1996 to 2022. Her research has investigated the cognitive and social implications of interactive media use. Recent research examined the relation between digital communication and well-being. Prior work used experimental designs to investigate the cognitive implications of digital screens and multitasking on executive function as well as learning and memory. She was a recipient of the Cal State LA Outstanding Professor Award, the Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Advisor award for the Honors College, and has been recognized for her mentorship of graduate students’ research and scholarship.
Adriana M. Manago is an associate professor of psychology at University of California Santa Cruz who earned her PhD in developmental psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles with a certificate of interdisciplinary training in developmental psychology and anthropology from the FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development. Her research aims to shed light on how adolescents are agents of cultural change in beliefs and values as they engage with new media technologies in the U.S. and in a Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico. As the director of the Culture and Technology (CaT) lab at UC Santa Cruz, she and her students study the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) from a sociocultural perspective to understand how mobile devices and social media are cultural tools for human social life that shape social and identity development during adolescence and the transition to adulthood.