The Identity Crisis in the Age of Social Media
- Kelly Hutton
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
By Kelly Hutton
One of the most important and most fragile parts of development during adolescence is the development of their identity. If you think back to your own teenage years, you can probably remember a phase or outfit that makes you cringe now. For me, it was a bright red pair of jeans paired with a black-and-white Yankees baseball top. Not my finest moment.. but in my defense it was the mid-to-late 90s.
Between the ages of roughly 11 and 15, young people are in the peak stage of identity development. This is when they start figuring out who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world. A strong, positive sense of identity helps them to interpret their experiences and behave in ways that feel authentic and grounded.
It is a powerful protective factor, a positive self-image. Ventegodt and Merrick (2014) suggest that self-image influences not only social identity, but also mental and even physical good health. The quality of a young person's self-image can shape their confidence, their wellbeing, and even their long-term success. And to add further to the importance of identity formation, Erikson's identity theory (1950) also tells us that a sense of identity is linked to positive mental health.
However, what I find particularly interesting is Erikson's idea of crisis and commitment, a process essential to the formation of identity.
Crisis and Commitment - The Messy Business of Identity Formation:
Erikson (1959), in the most simple terms, treated adolescence as a "psychosocial moratorium" or rather a temporary break or "time-out" from childhood where society allows teenagers to experiment with different roles before becoming serious adults. This period is unstable, we see this with teenagers struggling with the question "who am I?" and as they try to make sense of this, they intentionally change their behaviour, friendships, interests and goals just to see what fits for them.
This is a perfectly normal part of identity formation. From this, comes role confusion, the tension between having a clear sense of self and feeling completely lost. However, during adolescence, the goal isn't to be stable, the goal is to emerge from the chaos with a committed, confident sense of identity.
A teenager might change their hair colour, music taste and career goals three times in one year, moving from wanting to be an artist to a musician or a chef. This is all part of normal identity development. (This is also where I start to wonder if I ever left adolescence myself!)
Klimstra and colleagues (2012) expanded this idea of crisis-commitment with the Commitment-Reconsideration Cycles, showing that identity isn't one big crisis but a series of cycles:
Commitment -> Reconsideration -> New commitment.
Whilst this can feel very unstable, it is actually really adaptive, allowing teenagers to drop old commitments that no longer fit and adopt to new ones better suited to their changing lives. For example, a student who chooses their subjects in school (commitment) but every few weeks wonders if they should have picked different ones (reconsideration) potentially changing them later (new commitment)
All the research into identity formation really allows us to recognise the natural patterns that we have all experienced and can recognise in reality, but our identity is not formed purely from an individualist point of view; we are massively impacted by our wider circles...
The Ecological System
Ventegodt and Merrick (2014) suggests that the best self-image is no self-image as this allows life to unfold freely and spontaneously, whilst allowing them to be in the present and free of the past conditioning.
Darling’s (2007), extension of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (1979) demonstrated that identity disruption is not only individual but co-constructed through interdependent systems, which would include schools and families and, now in the digital era, social media. From this, we can see that identity isn't something developed in isolation, it is shaped powerfully by the environments we grow up in and the people within them, allowing nurture to play its role.
Much like the butterfly effect, what happens outside of their control has a big impact and is made up of different levels:
On the Micro-Level (The "Right Now") identity is formed through daily interactions with parents and peers, if their daily life is disrupted (change of school, move of home, death in the family, etc.), the "Micro" environment changes instantly.
The Macro-to-Micro link can have a big impact. A "Macro" event, such as a change in government policy or a global crisis (think Covid-19), circulates down very quickly to the Micro level. It changes how parents act, what teachers can do, and how a school functions, for example. Because the teen's "surroundings" are shifting, their sense of "self" also has to shift.
And then we have the PPCT element (Process, Person, Context, Time). This is where Darling (2007) reminds us that time really matters. A disruption in school, home life, friends, etc., isn't just a moment, but it's a process which must be worked through. Identity again becomes unstable because the adolescent is trying to adapt to a "new normal" that is still unfolding. This is why we saw such big impacts on children during the global pandemic.
Dragging Identity Formation into the Age of Social Media
Chen (2023) highlighted for us how social media adds a new, high speed layer to the external influences in identity development. For many of us, own adolescence didn't involve this extra digital environment and today's teens are forming identities on a platform.
Erikson's concept of "trying on" different identities now happens publicly and at speed. Strategic self-presentation, which Chen (2023) notes on platforms like Instagram, allows users to "rehearse" their identity and make unrealistic changes through photo edits and curated profiles, creating a version of themselves not rooted in reality.
This gap between "online persona" and the "offline self" can lead to an identity crisis, and if the feedback (likes/comments) is only for the "fake" version, the adolescent's actual sense of self remains unstable and unconfirmed.
The Supercharged Commitment-Reconsideration Cycle...
Research highlights functions like "likes" "comments," and "shares" provide instantaneous feedback. It creates social comparisons, with adolescents using these metrics to compare themselves to others. If a peer's post gets more engagement, it may trigger a "reconsideration" phase where the teen is doubting their own identity choices and changes their behaviours to fit the platform's social norms.
This is where we are seeing:
Hyper-sexualisation of younger adolescents
Adultification of children, where they adopt adult roles or aesthetics too early
Precocious identity where they are adopting adult traits and commitments earlier than expected, with the necessary emotional maturity required
The "Sephora Kid" phenomenon where young adolescents or "tweens" for the "get ready with me" videos adopting adult skincare and beauty routines. Some of these videos are seen with very young children.
According to Chen (2023) this happens when adolescents strategically control their appearance to meet the public aesthetics and social norms they are constantly seeing online. This leads to a "virtual self" that looks very different from what may develop in "real life".
Social media turns the "instability" of adolescence into a public, measurable performance. It provides tools for self-presentation but also increases social anxiety through constant comparison, making it so much harder to maintain a single identity. As a result, we see massive rises in adolescence mental health difficulties, fuelled by the constant pressure to perform, compare, and constantly reshape themselves to fit an online world that never switches off, reminding us just how vital it is that we support our young people as they navigate this complex stage of identity development.
What Do You Think?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Does it reflect what you see in your home, school, or professional setting? Do these theories help explain the behaviours you're noticing in young people today? Comment below or on my social media pages.
Want Practical Support?
For five ways to help support your young people through the identity crisis -> commitment phase in the world of social media, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. This week's posts break down simple, actionable stratgies you can use right away.
If you enjoyed this blog post, check out my other posts, about child and adolescent mental health issues all available to read for free.
References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.
Chen, S. (2023). The influence of social media platforms on self-identity in the new media environment: The case of TikTok and Instagram. SHS Web of Conferences, 165, 01020. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202316501020 (doi.org in Bing)
Darling, N. (2007). Ecological systems theory: The person in the center of the circles. Research in Human Development, 4(3–4), 203–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427600701663023
Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. International Universities Press.
Erikson, E. H. (1994). Identity: Youth and crisis (No. 7). W. W. Norton & Company. (Original work published 1968)
Giddens, A. (2020). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. In The new social theory reader (pp. 354–361). Routledge.
Klimstra, T. A., Hale, W. W., Raaijmakers, Q. A. W., Branje, S. J. T., & Meeus, W. H. J. (2012). Early adolescent identity formation: Developmental trajectories and longitudinal associations with psychosocial functioning. Child Development, 83(4), 1514–1528. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01794.x
Ventegodt, S., & Merrick, J. (2014). Significance of self-image and identity in youth development. Nova Science Publishers.
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