In this essay, I will discuss the effect that social networking has on adolescent identity development. I will first look at the stages and descriptions of adolescent identity development from both James Marcia and Erik Erikson. I will focus on Marcia’s Moratorium Phase and Erikson’s “Identity vs. Role Confusion” stage. Then I will discuss three main ways in which social networking can affect those stages of identity development: 1) the establishment and maintenance of an ideal identity in a addition to finding one’s own true identity 2) the impact of friends and social relationships; how they are important in adolescent development and how they are impacted by social networking and 3) cyber-bullying and its influence on self-esteem. I will argue that, in general, there are no major effects in the final result of identity development in adolescents; however, social networking has added complications to the process, which this generation of teens is the first to experience.
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