- Title
- Sexting, selfies and self-harm : young people, social media and the performance of self-development
- Creator
- Gabriel, Fleur
- Date
- 2014
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/92660
- Identifier
- vital:9609
- Identifier
- ISBN:1329-878X
- Abstract
- As platforms for self-expression, social media sites require users to consciously, visibly, and deliberately perform their identity. While a dominant developmental discourse encourages young people to test and explore different identities, a self-conscious and highly visible performance of identity via social media brings into question the form and value of this activity. This article reviews a range of popular arguments about how young people use media, and demonstrates how this use comes into conflict with a broader developmental discourse. It proposes that this conflict contributes to the perception that young people's media use is dangerous for healthy development, and that a different kind of approach to youth is needed. Engaging Judith Butler's notion of performativity, the article argues that social media and the structures of performative display are a way to reconceptualise youth and the relationship between social media and young people's self-development.
- Publisher
- University of Queensland Press
- Relation
- Media International Australia Vol. , no. 151 (2014), p. 104-112
- Rights
- Copyright © University of Queensland Press
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- 20 Language, Communication and Culture; 16 Studies In Human Society; 19 Studies In Creative Arts and Writing; Networking sites; Risk-taking; Internet; Myspace; Blogs; Age
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