The Dilemmal Socialization on Social Media Platforms : A Qualitative Study on the Experience of Online Socialization and the Infrastructure of Social Media Platforms

Sammanfattning: Social media effects may affect self-perception and the way media users live their offline lives. The purpose of this essay was to examine the phenomenon of social media saturation in order to understand the possible risks to the development of human identity during the adolescent period. Hence, these risks may be generated by being exposed to social comparison, cyberbullying, self-validation, and self-perception in a sensitive age when self-image is still fragile and being formed. The purpose of this essay is to examine the psychological tendencies of human beings while interacting with their peers on social media platforms. Hence, this will give us a clearer view of what would be achieved by conducting interviews. Moreover, a selection of theories will be applied to those interviews in order to associate those theories with what has been said by respondents. Hence, Meyrowitz’s theory will be used in relation to  understanding the identity adaptation to online connection and linked to Goffman’s discussions of “onstage” and “backstage” (Meyrowitz, 1985: 5). After this, the essay will investigate how users’ self-perception and social comparison are enacted while socializing on social media platforms. Furthermore, this essay sheds the light on how identity is constructed online in the sense of belonging to a community on a social media platform as well as of gratification coming from peer validation in a virtual community. To be able to explain this, the “Social Identity Theory” will, therefore, be discussed (Teo, Matti, et al, 2017: 23). This will be discussed by mentioning theories like “Mediatization” (Couldry & Hepp, 2013). And lastly, the sociological concept of Habitus, minted by Pierre Bourdieu will demonstrate the process of adaptation towards unspoken social codes existing in virtual communities (Markham, 2017: 55).  As found in the four qualitative semi-structured interviews with social media users, respondents are surrounding themselves with like-minded social groups which provide them with confidence about their own system of beliefs. Nevertheless, their perspectives are often marked by notable social pessimism and a lack of incentive to engage in conflictual interactions with others on social media. The results pointed out the perception among the interviewees that the impact of social media on identity formation is largely confined to adolescent users. Many users self-report significant daily screen time and are aware of the risks of social bubbles. Most of the respondents denied being subjected to cyberbullying, while they were surfing on social media, so the respondents’ physical lives were not affected by cyberbullying even for those who mentioned their exposure to cyberbullying. All the respondents expressed a sense of jealousy to some extent, even though some of them showed awareness of the thought that people post their lives from a perfect angle while hiding the flaws and not showing the imperfections of their lives on social media. Lastly, social comparison was an incentive feeling affected most of the respondents, and in their own experience, social media affected their character development and self-perception since they were exposed to social media at an adolescent age.