1. College Students, Social Media, and the Self
Do social and digital technologies change the way we understand our “self?”
Dissertation Proposal
Paul Gordon Brown
@paulgordonbrown
www.paulgordonbrown.com
paulgordonbrown@gmail.com

2. overview
‣ Purpose
‣ Question
‣ Literature
‣ Methodology
‣ Research Design

3. “I want to study
not only what the
computer is doing
for us, but what it
is doing to us.”
- Turkle
(Turkle, 2004, para 6)

4. purpose
‣ Purpose
‣ Question
‣ Literature
‣ Methodology
‣ Research Design

5. The following study attempts to inform an
understanding of this generation and their relationship
with digital and social technologies. Specifically, it
aims to understand how college students navigate
environments that are saturated by digital and social
technologies and how these environments impact
students’ psychological sense of self.

6. 98%
98 of adults ages 18-29 are on the internet
younger generations
are using the internet,
social media, and mobile
technologies at a high rate
89%
of adults 18-29 years old use social media 67% access it on mobile
70
70
78% 18-29 70
43%
60%
89%
65+
50-64
30-49
70
social media use
by age
(Brenner, 2013; Brenner & Smith, 2013; Pew Internet Project, n.d.)

7. “Rapidly changing conditions
within society have created
dramatically different
circumstances for students
across time and location…
student development must be
considered in light of these
changing scenarios.”
(Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, & Renn, 2010, p. 5;
Woodard, Love, & Komives, 2000)

8. Traditional theories held that…
“The major
achievement of
normal development
was a firm and fixed
‘sense of identity’”
- Gergen
(Gergen, 2000, p. 41)

9. self authorship
(Baxter Magolda 1999, 2001; Kegan, 1994)
inner identity
(Erikson, 1968; Erikson, 1980)
identity resolution
(Marcia, 1966)
identity formation
(Chickering & Reisser, 1993)

10. We no longer exist
as playwrights or
actors but as
terminals of
multiple networks.
-Baudrillard
(Baudrillard, 1987/2012, p. 23)

11. The online profile
“is and is not the user.”
BLURRY (Martínez Alemán & Lynk Wartman, 2009, p. 23)
HYBRIDIZED SATURATED
a “rupture” or “a series of
decisive far-reaching
breaks from the past”
(Bloland, 2005, p. 125)
an “implosion”
or a collapse of
boundaries
(Baudrillard, 1981/1995)
“singularity… a future period during
which the pace of technological
change will be so rapid, its impact so
deep, that human life will be
irreversibly transformed” (Kurzweil, 2005)

12. “The attempt in this
case is to construct
an ontology that
replaces the vision of
the bounded self as
the atom of the
social world.””
-Gergen
(Gergen, 2011, p. 112)

13. The following study attempts to inform an
understanding of this generation and their relationship
with digital and social technologies. Specifically, it
aims to understand how college students navigate
environments that are saturated by digital and social
technologies and how these environments impact
students’ psychological sense of self.

14. question
‣ Purpose
‣ Question
‣ Literature
‣ Methodology
‣ Research Design

15. Question Research
How do college students
construct concepts of “self”
in social media-saturated
and hybridized contexts?

16. this research assumes a
youth-normative
perspective
“attempts to understand
young people's experiences
through their viewpoint”
(Junco, 2014, p. xix)

18. “Many student affairs professionals use
the term digital identity development to
refer to online professional self-presentation;
however, it is important to
tease apart the differences between
using social media as part of the
exploration and development of identity
and using social media to present
oneself in a certain way. Labeling the
latter digital identity development
confounds a developmental process
with a professional communication
strategy. Furthermore, labeling online
professional self-presentation digital
identity development may keep the field
of student affairs from more critically
and deeply examining how the
emerging adult identity development
process is affected by online
interactions.”
(Junco, 2014, p. 257)

19. “At one time it seemed to refer to
a conscious sense of individual
uniqueness, at another to an
unconscious striving for a
continuity of experience, and at
a third, as a solidarity with a
group’s ideals.”
- Erikson
(Erikson, 1968, p. 208)
On identity…

20. “In examining components of
identity, we also need to consider
the concept of self…
Who or what is the self
that observes, learns and
decides? If the self is an
integrated system, who is
in charge of coordinating
it? Who organizes the
facets of personality into
an integrated whole.”
- Chickering & Reisser
(Chickering & Reisser, 1993, p. 201)

21. The term “self” refers to one’s
sense of being.
One’s “sense of self” is the
conscious experience of one’s
internal life.
One’s “construction of self” is
how one comes to consciously
understand this sense of being.
The term “identity” is the
actualization of this self.

22. “Identity” is what one is and
carries with it a series of
properties. Although “identity”
and “self” have been conflated
in discourse, they are
understood here to be separate
but related. “Self” is subject
to “identity” as object. From
one’s sense of self flows one’s
identity (and potentially
identities).

23. literature
‣ Purpose
‣ Question
‣ Literature
‣ Methodology
‣ Research Design

24. literature
‣ Fragmented
‣ Nascent and growing
‣ Can suffer from being quickly “out of date”
‣ Largely quantitative, outcomes-focused
‣ Theories and frames:
‣ (Co)Constructivsm
‣ Connectivism
‣ Critical Theory and Literacy
‣ Makes distinctions between formal and
informal learning

25. methodology
‣ Purpose
‣ Question
‣ Literature
‣ Methodology
‣ Research Design

26. qualitative inquiry
grounded theory
(Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990)

27. intentionally skewed
purposeful
extreme
sample
Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation
(Rogers, 2003)
An eye towards the future…

28. participant
recruitment
College students 18-24 years old
‣ Completing/completed coursework in social media
(half)
‣ Identified by college staff has heavy/sophisticated users (half)
heavy/sophisticated usage gauged by
pre-interview questionnaire.
15-25 participants.. but determined by data exhaustion
Student Profile
‣ From a highly selective research university on a residential
campus near a major metropolitan area in the Northeast
‣ Likely undergraduate juniors or seniors

29. Pre-interview Questionnaire
‣ Establish usage patterns of participant
Semistructured Interview (First Session, 1 hour)
‣ Probe how students understand self
‣ Examine how sense is made of online/offline life
Synchronous Ethnographic Tour * (Second Session, 1 hour)
‣ Observe how students interact online
‣ How is identity constructed/understood
Follow-up as necessary—dictated by data
data collection
*
(Martínez Alemán & Lynk Wartman, 2009, p. 23)

30. constant
comparative
iterative
memoing
coding in vivo > focused > axial > theoretical
(Saldaña, 2013)
saturation will occur when no new theorization emerges
determines sample size
(Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990)
analysis

31. validity
Researcher Lens
‣ Triangulation
‣ Disconfirming Evidence
‣ Reflexivity
Study Participant Lens
‣ Member Checking
‣ Prolonged Engagement
‣ Collaboration
External Reviewer Reader Lens
‣ Thick and Rich Descriptions
‣ Peer Debriefer
(Creswell and Miller, 2000)

32. ‣Ethical considerations
‣Positionality/Reflexivity
‣Limitations

33. conclusion
‣ Purpose
‣ Question
‣ Literature
‣ Methodology
‣ Research Design

34. Question Research
How do college students
construct concepts of “self”
in social media-saturated
and hybridized contexts?

35. College Students, Social Media, and the Self
Do social and digital technologies change the way we understand our “self?”
Dissertation Proposal
Paul Gordon Brown
@paulgordonbrown
www.paulgordonbrown.com
paulgordonbrown@gmail.com

36. references
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Baxter Magolda, M. B. (1999). Creating contexts for learning and self-authorship:
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Baxter Magolda, M. B. (2001). Making their own way: Narratives for transforming
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Bloland, H.G. (2005). Whatever happened to postmodernism in higher education?
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37. references
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