Frontline asks: "What happens when the traditional quest for teenage identity and connection occurs online?" A great question to ask, especially as identity increasingly becomes an online-profile-piecemeal across platforms. As interviewer Douglas Rushkoff remarks "when you like something and that something likes you back, other people notice, and they follow her, too." In the trappings of expression and empowerment, social media is has a profound impact on how teens and preteens "sell" themselves, how they form relationships, manage their brand, and exist as their own media company. "Your consumer is your marketer, which is a real shift from the one-way conversation," notes the :54 minute video, with Bonin Bough, V.P. Global Media, Mondelez, adding "the icons of this generation is the like button, the retweet button, twitter--this is the biggest transformation we've had in communicating with consumers in our lifetime."
A good watch and an interesting first look into how "Likes" affect not only self-esteem and development during these crucial years, but how identity has evolved into being highly public, branded, and followed. Personally, I loved when the teens didn't know what "sell-out" meant. Welcome to the brand sponsored social identity.
PBS Frontline, February 2014
