Looking at identity construction processes in the cyberspace. A pilot study on late adolescents

Understanding identity shaping during adolescence in the Internet era must include several dimensions of the self that develop within dynamics taking place in the world of virtual socialization. Our study was conceived as a preliminary investigation on some psychosocial processes underpinning online communication aspects of identity construction. Our sample comprised 33 Italian undergraduate psychology students (age range: 19-21) who participated in the study on a voluntary basis; in the first phase of the study they were administered online versions of validated questionnaires inquiring digital skills, personal values, empathic responsivity and personality styles. Each subject was subsequently invited to join anonymously (using a nickname) a virtual community researchers created ad hoc, including both a weblog and a forum, the former conceptualized as a personal narrative space, the latter as an interactive tool allowing free discussions about the participants' everyday lives. The exploratory analysis we performed on weblogs and forum contents showed the presence of recurrent themes referred to crucial areas as academic engagement, professional dimensions of future, interpersonal relationships (romantic and family issues) and personal interests. Further analyses are in progress to highlight the correlations between these narrative contents and the subjects' psychosocial traits assessed by the above mentioned standardized questionnaires, correlations that could indicate if online descriptions of self and experiential dimensions represent critical elements of identity structuring in late adolescence. Little is known about online identity processes involving adolescents; our contribution tried to adopt a new narrative perspective on the use of electronic communication devices as both instruments of self exposure and ways to gain access to a relational network in which the real and the virtual merge into one another.