Social Media, Youth and Identity : Identity Formation Through Social Media Among Korean Youth

Studies have examined the relationship between social media and identity among Korean youth. With the growing use of social media in everyday life, there is an ongoing debate on the effect of users' social media behaviour related to their identity formation. In order to answer that question, this thesis aims to analyze how the social media behaviour of Korean youth impacts their identity formation. Moreover, this research examines how emotional factors of social media among the study's participants affect multi-identity. Methodologically, I adopt a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods that include a questionnaire survey and focus group interview. The findings reveal that, firstly, social media is increasingly integrated into the everyday lives of the participants and social media behaviour is divided into usage status, usage motivation and usage pattern. Secondly, social media is regarded as an important space that forms its own identity and confirms that social media behaviour has a huge impact on the identity formation of the participants. Lastly, the participants express their individual identities in their own way on social media and have a significant impact on multi-identity according to four emotional factors based on social identity theory. In conclusion, the main implication of this study is to identify the characteristics of social media behaviour in order to improve the basic steps for Korean youth's identity formation. The study findings are intended to contribute to the broadening of academic understanding and knowledge of the ways in which contemporary Korean youth are immersed in the social media environment. In addition, the conclusions of this study will provide further insights can be implemented in future research of social media, youth and identity.