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Presentation
Identity Work on Social Media Sites: Disadvantaged Students' College Transition Processes
19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing
(2016)
Abstract
Prior research suggests that some social media practices can play a role in shaping students’ adjustment to college; however, the specific mechanisms by which social media can support the identity work associated with successful transitions to college are not well understood. This paper investigates how social media experiences and interactions can support college-focused identity construction for lowincome, first-generation college students. Drawing on indepth, semi-structured interviews with 31 emergent adults from disadvantaged backgrounds in the United States, we identify social media affordances that support the process of identity work during a critical transition period. Findings indicate that social media platforms support provisional identity work, but disadvantaged college students lack access to mentor-like figures that could be accessible through social media. We also find barriers to sharing information online that may extend to other life transitions in multiple life contexts and review the design implications of our findings.
Keywords
- Social media,
- social network sites,
- emergent adults,
- transition,
- identity work,
- college,
Disciplines
Publication Date
2016
Location
San Francisco, California
DOI
10.1145/2818048.2819959
Comments
This is a manuscript of a proceeding from CSCW '16 Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, February 27-March 02, 2016, San Francisco, CA. ACM. doi: 10.1145/2818048.2819959. © 2016 ACM. Posted with permission.
Citation Information
Tsubasa Morioka, Nicole B. Ellison and Michael Brown. "Identity Work on Social Media Sites: Disadvantaged Students' College Transition Processes" 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (2016) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/brown-michael/10/