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An ‘Open Source’ Networked Identity. On Young People’s Construction and Co-construction of Identity on Social Network Sites

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Youth 2.0: Social Media and Adolescence

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Abstract

This chapter examines the concept of identity in relation to youth practices on SNSs. The chapter illustrates how writing “I love you” or other emotional statements on each other’s profiles on SNSs is not only a common way for Danish teenagers to communicate and practice friendship, but also an important part of their self-presentation online. It examines why these emotional statements are almost always publicly available – or even strategically and intentionally placed on the young people’s profiles. In relation to this, it is argued that young people – through their emotional communicative actions – are not only staging their own identity, but are co-constructors of each other’s identities, which the author characterises as an “open source”, networked identity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Malene Charlotte Larsen

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  1. Malene Charlotte Larsen
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Correspondence to Malene Charlotte Larsen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Michel Walrave

  2. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Koen Ponnet

  3. Department of Edu Studies & iMinds-MICT, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

    Ellen Vanderhoven

  4. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Jacques Haers

  5. University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Barbara Segaert

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Larsen, M.C. (2016). An ‘Open Source’ Networked Identity. On Young People’s Construction and Co-construction of Identity on Social Network Sites. In: Walrave, M., Ponnet, K., Vanderhoven, E., Haers, J., Segaert, B. (eds) Youth 2.0: Social Media and Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27893-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27893-3_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27891-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27893-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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