Social Media and Youth Sociopolitical Identity Development: Navigating Key Tensions with Marginalized Adolescent Organizers

Project Setting and Participants

The project occurred in the Seattle and South Puget Sound metropolitan areas of Washington state and was approved by the University of Washington IRB (STUDY00012845). The YPAR project used a snowball sampling approach. An electronic flyer was distributed to greater Seattle and South Puget Sound youth-led organizations. An online application asked youth to self-report basic demographic information, describe their civic or community engagement experience, discuss what social justice issues are important to them, and explain why they wanted to participate in the study. Once a few youth researchers were enrolled, they were invited to recruit others they thought would be a good fit for the project. All youth were compensated $25 per hour for their participation. The study was IRB-approved. Youth over 18 completed written consent forms, and youth under 18 completed written assent forms with parent permission. Verbal consent was obtained continuously throughout the project, before each research activity.

The youth researchers and their guardians have consented to use their data in this paper. Pseudonyms have been randomly generated for all participants. All of the youth participants hold multiple marginalized identities. hooks (1989) speaks to the transformative power of marginality as a context for learning and social change,

Marginality [is] much more than a site of deprivation. In fact, I was saying just the opposite: that it is also the site of radical possibility, a space of resistance. It was this marginality that I was naming as a central location for the production of a counter-hegemonic discourse that is not just found in words but in habits of being and the way one lives. As such, I was not speaking of a marginality one wishes to lose, or give up, or surrender as part of moving into the center, but rather as a site one stays in, clings to even, because it nourishes one’s capacity to resist. It offers the possibility of radical perspectives from which to see and create, to imagine alternatives, new worlds. (p. 341)

Participant ages ranged from 14 to 19, with the average age being 16. They spoke several languages, including English, Spanish, Cantonese, Somali, and Vietnamese. Six youth participants were from middle-class families, and five were from working-class or low-income families. Three young people lived with a disability or identified as disabled. Genders were cis women (n = 5), transmasc (n = 1), gender fluid (n = 1), non-binary (n = 2), and cis men (n = 2). Races, as reported in their own words, included Asian (n = 2), biracial AfroLatina (n = 1), White (n = 3), Black (n = 2), White Latine (n = 1), multiracial: Black, White, and Desi (n = 1), and biracial: Asian and White (n = 1).

All youth participants reported being committed to specific social justice movements or causes and being socio-politically active to some degree. However, the level of community engagement or sociopolitical activity varied. Six were very active and experienced in organizing communities or political campaigns. Five were either not currently (but previously) active or currently somewhat active in organizing/local social justice work. Issues important to participants included climate change, racial injustice and anti-racism, housing justice, prison and police abolition, anti-capitalism, trans liberation feminism, and more. All but one participant were involved in at least one social or community organization (online or offline). Six were involved in three or more social or community organizations.

Social Media Platforms

While youth could have pulled data from all platforms, only screenshots of Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter/X were collected. Each platform is connected to the others, and in some cases, the same content was shared across each one. However, it is important to note that they each have a different core function, audience, and programed characteristics. TikTok is primarily short-form video content and is heavily algorithm-driven. It was the app most used by participants in the study, and generally has high engagement rates from young people (Ceci, 2025). Twitter/X focuses on information sharing through short-form text-based posts, though links and images are sometimes included. Only one participant collected data from Twitter, and it is generally more popular with older demographics (Dixon, 2024a). Instagram emphasizes images, short-form videos and live videos. Text can be included, but generally the content focuses on esthetics and the construction of profile pages. Instagram was commonly used amongst the youth participants, though less than TikTok. Generally Instagram attracts younger users (Dixon, 2024b).

Data Collection

This project utilized semi-structured interviews conducted by the first author, transcriptions of unstructured dialog that took place during the photovoice project, and images from a photovoice study (snapshots of participants’ social media content and interactions + youth co-constructed surveys analyzing each snapshot), and a survey about social identity. Table 1 outlines the data collected.

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Table 1.

Summary of Data Collected.

Site	Number of youth	Interviews & transcribed dialogs	Images/Videos & accompanying written reflection	Social identity survey	Social media use survey
Adolescent organizers in the Pacific Northwest metropolitan area	11	41	159	11	11

Data Analysis

This study uses activity system theory as a framework to analyze images, surveys, interviews, and recorded unstructured dialog with adolescent organizers who participated in a youth participatory action research project, facilitated by the first author. Activity system theory serves as a useful analytic framework for examining the relationship between social media and youth sociopolitical identity by contextualizing youth motivations and behavior within a system of sociocultural and historical activity. It centers the multivoicedness of youth sociopolitical identities and experiences while helping us create a shared language for understanding and acting upon this relationship. Activity system theory, rooted in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), has proved to be a powerful tool for exploring human learning and development within complex settings and bridging the gap between research and practice (Postholm & Vennebo, 2020). It has also been a central theoretical framework in human-computer interaction (HCI; Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012; Kuutti, 1996; Nardi, 1996).

Of the CHAT adaptations, we drew from Engeström’s (1987, 2015) activity theory as an analytical framework. Activity systems analysis is designed to understand human activity within a collective context (Engeström, 1987; Kaptelinin, 2005). There are five guiding principles of activity theory (Engeström, 2015). The first is that the unit of analysis is a collective, cultural artifact-mediated, and object-oriented activity system. Any single action is analyzed within a system of activity, and activity systems need to be seen in the context of their networked relationship to other activity systems (Engeström, 2015; Kuutti, 1996). The second principle is that activity systems are multi-voiced (Engeström, 2015). There is always a community of diverse histories, multiple viewpoints, cultural practices, and interests within any activity system. The third principle is historicity. Activity systems are shaped and transformed over time. The fourth principle is the centrality of contradictions as sources of change, learning, and development (Engrström, 2015). Contradictions seed disturbance, conflict, innovation, and transformative change. The final principle is that as contradictions within an activity system are aggregated, people question and deviate from established cultural norms. This can lead to collaborative and collective change efforts between people and between activity systems, leading to “expansive transformation” (Engeström, 1999, 2015). Finally, a key tenet of this model is that activity systems are constantly developing, and contradictions within activity systems drive this process. Contradictions are analyzed (1) within each component, (2) between components, (3) between the activity system and its potential object and outcome, and (4) between one activity system (as a whole) and other activity systems (Engeström, 1987, 2001).

This paper adopts Engeström’s third-generation model of collective activity (see Figure 1). In this model, subject refers to the individual or subgroup whose position and point of view are chosen as the perspective of analysis. Object refers to the objective or action resulting from the activity’s components working together. In this case, the object refers to the key factors of critical consciousness. Community refers to one’s personal relationships and social groups. Division of labor refers to the explicit and implicit organization of a community as related to the transformation process of the object into the outcome (Kuutti, 1996). It also includes action that is interdependent on another individual or collective action. Instruments refer to technologies, tools, signs, and symbols that either facilitate or limit activity (including language usage and technological medium), and rules refer to the explicit and implicit regulations, social norms, conventions, standards, and constraints of the activity system (Engeström, 2001; Engeström & Sannino, 2010).

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Figure 1.

Engeström’s model of activity theory (Engeström, 2001).

In this study, we analyze the data for significant tensions or contradictions embedded in the relationship between social media and youth sociopolitical identity development. We summarize how youth navigate and make meaning of these tensions in the results, and then expand the discussion of the different activity system components.

Tension 1: Fostering Collective Identity Versus Reinforcing Individualistic Myths About Empowerment

The activity system analysis highlighted that social media can foster the development of collective identity and a sense of collective efficacy. Simultaneously, it can reinforce individualistic myths about who is a powerful change agent. Figure B1 (Appendix B) outlines key components in this tension.

Social media can be a powerful tool for fostering community and a sense of belonging around a shared collective identity or experience. Within their online communities, some participants received validation of their racialized and other sociopolitical experiences through online interactions. For several youth, this helped them locate challenges or problems as external to themselves (i.e., patriarchy or racism) rather than internalized damaging narratives or behaviors. For example, one participant, Amy, explained that social media problematizes aspects of her daily life, which helps her better contextualize her sociopolitical identities. She shared that online content and dialogs can “help you think about everyday things that you don’t really bat an eye at.” Also, “they have really interesting comments sections elaborating more on the post” in a way that validates her racialized and gendered experiences as a 14-year-old Asian-American and helps her feel connected to others with a shared social experience. To demonstrate this, she collected a social justice slideshow series that drew attention to the fetishization of Asian women (Appendix C, Image C1). A social justice slideshow is a compilation of informational text and images shared in a single Instagram post. They are typically designed to be accessible and highly shareable. This slideshow was created by The Peahce Project, a media account with over 27,000 followers (The Peahce Project [@thepeahceproject], n.d.). Over 171,000 accounts liked the post. For Amy, there was power in seeing,

A lot of commenters were saying other phrases that they heard after they survived the sexual assault, phrases that were often damaging to their mental health. I also noticed how everyone was supportive of each other and that it was a safe space.

Responses in the comments ranged from simple replies of “this” to sharing their own stories, with others validating their experiences through likes and comments like “reading the comments rn and im sorry you guys went through what you did. you are loved. <4” Amy emphasized that through comments like these, social media can normalize reaching out for support from others and caring for each other in a way that fosters a sense of community and collective experience around her experiences with trauma and oppression. She also shared that it helped her better understand her lived experience as a social justice issue, something that went beyond a personal problem.

Additionally, multiple participants discussed how social media can foster a collective identity by helping young people recognize their individual actions as part of a broader system of activism and organizing. All but two youth expressed that they felt tremendous internal pressure and personal responsibility to learn, grow, and take effective action. For some, this led to feelings of not knowing where to begin, being overwhelmed, burned out, and feeling incompetent. For example, Naimh shared, “Like you want to be able to keep up with everything, but it’s hard.” Elena shared that in her daily life on social media, “you’re constantly getting sad info about stuff happening in the world.” As she is inundated with information about social issues, she said she often feels “I can’t take a break now.”

While it can contribute to a sense of overwhelm, the majority of the youth in the study felt that the networked and interconnected nature of social media helped them realize they are part of a broader community of resistance and social justice action. It opened up their eyes to how the labor of social change could be divided amongst individuals, organizations, and social groups. For most youth in the study, this helped them better understand and appreciate “behind the scenes” roles for sociopolitical change. Five youth participants highlighted ways that social media helps them understand their critical action in relation to a broader network of change agents. Elena shared an example of how social media stories can show the diversity of ways that young people of all abilities can participate. She said that she had been inspired by a graphic she came across on social media. She said it read, “You can be so many roles in the revolution. You can be the community mutual aid cook, you could be the person that applies the books, you can be all these different things.” She explained, “I think a lot of my privilege makes me able to go be a frontliner and also do social media work.” However, this graphic prompted her to reflect on all the “behind-the-scenes work” that may go unnoticed but is critically important for social movements:

Like we have medics that cannot be me, we have people who lead de-escalation trainings that cannot be me. . ..someone else can like cook meals for everyone, someone else can like raise money to make sure that people can access leftist education, and leftist books and leftist readings. . .. I think the roles that I assume are ones that people identify with the most when they think of community organizing, like being out on the actual streets and in marching and protesting and then also social media work and, holding mutual aid events are the primary ways I see people show out. But people who don’t have access, or are unable to participate in those things.

To expand on this point, she shared a post of about 50 people holding up signs after canvassing for a local city council candidate (Appendix C, Image C2) on Instagram stories. Text accompanied the story: “Canvassing is also an awesome way to support if you have the capacity and are physically able [smiling face with hearts emoji] but zoom sessions are a great alternative if not (or do both [eyes emoji]).”

Others spoke to similar ideas. Social media helped them see their individual actions as part of a larger context and network of sociopolitical activity within their communities. Seeing the diverse roles they and others can take decreased their scrutiny on the “success” or power of any particular individual action and emphasized collective efficacy, collective responsibility, and building strong networks and coalitions of social change agents. They saw social media as an instrument for forging a collective identity by demonstrating a “togetherness” and “feeling like you are a part of something bigger.”

Additionally, Naimh, a White, non-binary, disabled organizer, shared that social media helped them think critically about where their place is in social struggles based on their identities and experiences. Social media makes users’ “on paper” identities front and center. As a result, the youth think more about how they are perceived in the world. As will be discussed later, this can have both positive and negative effects. However, Naimh said that this aspect of being sociopolitically active online helped them think and reflect on where they were taking up space, where they could be most effective, and where they needed to step back and de-center their perspective. They shared that,

I’m obviously not a part of a lot of communities. And so hearing from those communities firsthand on social media allows me to form my perspective, and at the same time, recognize 'hey, it’s not really my place to be an advocate for those things. Like it’s not my like place to post about that or. . .I mean, so I think kind of like hearing from that perspective, also allows me to see where I fit into social justice movements.

The participants identified ways that social media may facilitate the development of a collective identity, which is crucial for developing a sense of collective efficacy and understanding themselves as part of an intersectional, interconnected struggle. However, they also noted that social media might reinforce myths of individualism and exceptionalism around who is or is not an activist. All youth discussed how follower count, social media influencers, and the quantification of engagement reinforced popular myths about who is or is not a social change agent.

This may be particularly salient for younger youth or youth with less experience engaging in sociopolitical discussions or work. Three of the youngest participants in this study discussed the influence of “influencers” and celebrities on their notions of effective sociopolitical action. In particular, they more heavily emphasized the scope and scale of an individual’s reach rather than seeing efforts as part of a broader collective. They also worked through myths and misconceptions about what “counts” as sociopolitical action. They expressed that they see themselves as less powerful or agentic than others they see on social media. These social comparisons appeared to have an adverse effect on their personal sociopolitical identity development. For example, the three youngest participants, Jessica, Amy, and Jamal, collected examples of how popular culture representations of what it means to be an activist were pervasive in virtual spaces. They discussed how social media often portrays activists as having a strong social media presence, high visibility, or a direct connection to powerful institutions. When talking about the ability to effect change on social issues, Jessica, who was new to organizing, spoke of her limited “influence.” When asked what kind of influence she meant, she said that power was synonymous with being a social media influencer or having verification status on a social media platform and a certain number of followers. “It’s mostly because I don’t have a sort of status, I would say. Mostly you see celebrities doing it, or like celebrities’ children. But it’s mostly people of that sort of build.” She asserted that it takes having influence and a powerful presence to change people’s minds and behaviors. She felt that social media influencers could make a broader collective impact in a way she could not. She said this can be especially true for youth activists who are celebrated as exceptional: “But I’ve never seen a sort of normal, middle-class teenager actually do it. The only person I could think of is Greta Thunberg. She built that, and I guess she influenced a lot of people too.”

Jessica described how social media has demonstrated that political power comes with having normative, dominant, and socially desirable characteristics: “I guess like influencers who are very perfect in a sense, speaking out about these things and saying stuff like, ‘oh support this cause, or something’.” She also noted that beauty influencers on social media appear powerful to her, as they capture people’s attention and reach a mass audience. She concluded, “This is why I say influencers have more of an impact on movements because they have so many followers and so many likes.” Amy and Ali agreed. Ali shared, “There’s a lot of pressure for beauty standards online, so that’s definitely part of it. And then if someone has more friends, you might be like, ‘I wonder what they’re doing right.’”

Jamal, who is newer to organizing, added to this point. His experience with social media taught him that one needs to be a popular public-facing figure to enact social change. He discussed how he sees other people engage on social media, and that their words and actions seem so grand but also so public. He struggles to find a way to be more active: “Because social media is so big, feels like you need to be comfortable with public speaking in order to be involved.” As a result, he struggled to see where he might fit in or perceived there to be high barriers to entering public sociopolitical spaces. Here, participants point to ways that social media may exaggerate the outward-facing social awareness or advocacy roles compared to behind-the-scenes organizing roles and communicate the assumption that one needs to be a public figure with a significant social following to make a meaningful change. The perceived sociopolitical power of media and famous figures is not unique to social media, but social media helps perpetuate those perceptions. Youth still trying to find their political voice may internalize these messages.

Tension 2: Exploring/Expressing Values and Ideological Identity Versus Limiting Exploration via Gatekeeping and Toxic Debate Culture

On one hand, social media was a landscape where some felt like they could be more open and honest about their ideas, ideologies, and experiences. All participants identified multiple ways they engaged with others on social media to explore and develop their political values and ideologies, which are essential for the development of their political identity. At the same time, they felt that social media limited their ideological exploration via gatekeeping and an unhealthy culture of debate rather than dialog. Figure B2 (Appendix B) summarizes the activity system of social media and youth sociopolitical exploration.

With respect to exploring and expressing ideological identity, Ali observed that “A lot of people tend to be more open on the internet than just like in real life” and that online, “You get to be more honest.” While he acknowledged that this came with some unhealthy dialogical practices (discussed later in this section), comment sections and online forums were important because “there’s more space to talk about things, a lot of the time.” This included dialog with strangers and people he knew. Ali proactively sought out the opinions of others as a way of figuring out how he felt. For example, he came across an image of a Klansman being hanged and felt conflicted about the implicit message. After the image was posted on his Instagram stories, he said, “I was like, ‘what are people’s opinions on this?’ and then I like reposted the opinions and tried to categorize them.” The interactive functions of Instagram stories allowed for a quick and easy way to gather others’ perspectives in one place so that he could process and reflect on his own.

Peter also used the Instagram poll feature to solicit engagement and others’ perspectives on sociopolitical issues. He shared that he routinely poses questions to his network and reflects on the different responses:

The three most recent ones are I just did are 'Environmental justice and stopping climate change will come by innovating or restoring?’, ‘Are ideas of human beauty these days are primarily derived of social factors or biological factors?’ and ‘what’s missing more in the world organization or creativity?’ So they’re not very not divisive questions at all. They don’t take a partisan side, or a political side. They’re very two sides, and there are two right answers types of questions.

He explained that “I just kind of like thinking about the questions” and that “There are some people who I like seeing their answers for.” Elena noted that comparing and contrasting different perspectives is important for expanding and deepening her own ideas, values, and ideologies, and that social media is a space where she can further her development. She explained that

The things I consume, a lot of it has been catered towards me wanting to educate myself further so if someone post something like ‘oh my gosh I never even thought about that’ then that will help me compare my pre-existing understanding of the world and change it.

Elodie discussed how this process was not always easy, but was still important for their SPD identity. They had been very active in a large young people’s movement for environmental justice. They collected a screenshot of “the beginning of a Twitter thread in which describing complaints against a popular climate justice organization, in a detailed and lengthy manner. It describes racism and a bit of corruption and all sorts of things” (Appendix C, Image C4). Elodie described the thread as it expanded beyond the original post:

There were people saying this organization hadn’t been doing enough, and then members of the Black caucus saying that they were doing a lot and accusing the organization of not doing enough was actually ignoring and undervaluing their labor as Black people and mainly Black women, there were people calling for the movement to disband, there were members higher up in the organization sending super long messages saying they recognize what happened but they were responding to it, there were lots of people sharing their stories with this movement with examples like being designated as problem hubs and not receiving support, of having their trauma exploited for public speeches, not receiving adequate mutual aid, and there were people talking about how much the organization inspired them, why they joined, and how much potential they had. This was across multiple platforms.

Elodie explained that public-facing conflicts and debates such as this one “. . .aided my development as I had to reconsider my values. To be honest, it was very stressful to decide how this information would affect my future actions. I had to see where my values stood and what action would best benefit the world.” They explained that they felt “Upset, kind of like dread, shocked but not really, kind of validated because I’d been thinking about this and not seeing people talk about it but to be fair the thread went beyond what I’d been thinking.”

Additionally, Jessica, Ali, Elodie, and Ana noted how social media diversifies how young people connect with information. This included learning from marginalized forms of knowledge (i.e., sensory, emotional). One of these ways was using art and entertainment to deepen people’s understanding and facilitate an emotional and sensory connection to an issue or idea. Ana highlighted an example that uses music, narration, and visual art to share information about indigenous genocide and call viewers to action. She collected a minute-long TikTok video (Appendix C, Image C5) from a professional artist’s account @janeyillustration (Janey Illustration, 2021). Janey Illustration is run by Janey Robideau. The account has over 200,000 followers, and its videos have over 10 million likes (Janey Illustration, n.d.). In the video collected by Ana, Labrinth’s “Forever” plays in the background as the artist records herself speaking. As she speaks, she is creating a print of a cradleboard. As she cuts from the linoleum block, she reads a passage about the forced removal of indigenous children in the U.S. and Canada and the subsequent deaths of children in boarding schools. She closes with a question to the audience: “We’re already up to over a thousand bodies. How many more will there be?” The post is accompanied by text promoting an upcoming sale of the print. It had 4.1 million views, 1.3 million likes, and more than 8,000 comments. The mood of the music is dark and ethereal, but it builds in energy as the artist speaks. The close focus on the linoleum block as it is being carved helps focus the viewer on the subject. While the text is powerful in and of itself, Ana used this video to highlight how social media can use music and visual aids to help youth understand a certain level of emotional experience and communicate inarticulate truths. She further explained:

I choose to submit this post because I think art can be underlooked in the context of social media organizing. I think art is a very unique way to organize because it can really grab people’s attention, because of how deep and personal art can be. It’s very personal and can create a lot of emotion and attention around an issue.

Elodie noted that “emotions are important for gaining a broader understanding” and that social media allows them to connect more deeply with the holistic experience of an event, situation, or issue, rather than just “the facts.”

While participants noted that various social media tools can help them build, explore, and express their sociopolitical values and ideologies, they may also reinforce high expectations of learned knowledge for entry into racial and social justice spaces. This can contribute to gatekeeping. Specifically, participants mentioned how social media positions knowledge and information as a currency for power and social position. Elodie said that in reviewing comments and exchanges in threads, they noticed that “A norm of gatekeeping develops. If people can respond more quickly or use bigger words, they get some social power in those spaces as knowing more. It’s cutting out people who don’t already know a lot out.” Niamh added a similar sentiment, sharing that they usually are “Feeling pressure to enter conversations with your ideas clear and having arguments to back up what you are saying, and not entering until you have done that.” Jessica, who is newer to organizing, agreed. She shared, “I’m fearful of not being educated enough to speak up on social media.” For her, that fear was rooted in concern for perpetuating oppression and making a widely public mistake.

I feel like whenever I speak upon social justice issues, I’m scared that I’m going to say something wrong about an opposing group of people, and that will hurt them in some sort. And then it will just become very bad. It’s not like I’ve done it before, but I’m just really scared that that will happen, and it really changes the way that I talk about it.

Ana also described how the language, knowledge, and communication norms in online social justice spaces “can be inaccessible, especially for younger people.” She added that this contributes to her struggle to process what she encounters online in dialog with her Spanish-speaking family: “It’s been kind of difficult to engage with them about it, especially in the context that a lot of the activists’ language in English doesn’t really translate well in Spanish.” She added that “It’s difficult to explain to my parents” and that she struggles to connect with others in her family who are her own age. “They speak Spanish, so they don’t really understand half of the stuff I post.” Her family is a very important sociopolitical learning space, so in this way, she feels that social media makes it hard to process critical ideas, history, and terms online with some of the people she trusts the most to support her political development.

Peter agreed that gatekeeping was a serious problem exacerbated by social media and could see how it affected how people legitimize or shame diverse sociopolitical perspectives, even within generally aligned groups. In reflecting on this, he created, shared, and analyzed an Instagram story intended for “Organizers and activists, especially ones who are very gatekeepy and rigid” (Appendix C, Image C3). His story was seen by more than 392 people in his direct social media network and shared numerous times. Over a faded blue background, the text reads,

If your organizing is about narrowly defining ideological boundaries and excluding or even attacking key potential allies, it’s not building power necessary to change society.

Organizing to build real political power is about [text between asterisks is emphasized in different color font] *coalescing factions to create majorities*, not fighting over ideological purity or complex theories of change.

It doesn’t matter if you’re “right” if you don’t have a majority behind you.

(Being a part of the enlightened minority doesn’t mean anything besides that you’re more concerned with your intellectual status over the real work)

Every participant spoke about a culture of toxic debating and that conflicts were pervasive in their online experiences. Naimh described that they felt high expectations for engaging in sociopolitical dialog in most online spaces. In their experience, “if you don’t have a perfectly constructed idea or like value or whatever, then you’re naturally going to be attacked by people.” They did not feel there was much space to discuss their ideas, and they felt they needed to use specific language. Casey agreed, “It can get toxic and terrible so fast.” Naimh added:

It’s kind of a double-edged sword because there’s some people that will like enter conversations and not know really anything, and so, then they receive push back. But at the same time there’s this pressure that if you don’t have tons of reasoning and backgrounds and all this type of stuff, then you really can’t join those conversations.

Ana noted that “getting called out” in and of itself is not necessarily harmful to sociopolitical identity development. She explained that ideas are “constantly being explored online” and that,

I think owning up, first of all to your mistake is just the biggest thing. Because oftentimes I see a lot of people when they do get called out they get really defensive and don’t really want to own up to the mistake that they made. But I personally think that owning up to something, and someone calling you out is a really educational opportunity that you can take to learn more about other people’s perspectives. And I personally think that everyone’s constantly learning, no one knows everything and no one’s perfect. So opportunities are when people do get called out it’s an opportunity for you to take a step back learn more. And then educate yourself on that topic.

However, she noted that the prevalence of call-out culture and a fear of being called out creates a paradoxical pressure, in which people feel like they need to signal their sociopolitical ideas, values, and identities online because,

a lot of people recently have began to start calling out the people in their communities or in their social following for not really engaging in any organizing activities or contributing in any sort of way. And so people feel inclined that like they have to start posting so that they don’t look like a bad person.

However, she noted that expression motivated by this pressure “just comes off as performative because they’re only reposting to not look bad, they’re not reposting to actually engage in you know stuff going on around that will actually benefit communities.”

Naimh added that this effect could be reinforced by their social identity and associated stereotypes. They discussed an “Emily ACAB” stereotype that had developed the previous year. The “Emily ACAB” schema originated from a series of TikTok videos in which young men mimicked and exaggerated stereotypes of young, liberal White girls. The idea picked up a lot of steam during the 2020 BLM uprisings, in which young White women were critiqued for performative BLM posts and making BLM into an esthetic. While Naimh agreed that there was a problem with the performativity and commercialization of BLM amongst young White girls, they felt that this created an environment where some girls could not freely explore or express themselves.

It was pretty much young women that were talking about their political opinions were receiving a lot of like backlash for being quote-unquote performative. And so I think that prevented a lot of young girls, especially high schoolers from continuing to speak up now, a year later, because they don’t want to be perceived as somebody who’s just kind of hopping on the trend just because they don’t know that much information.

Tension 3: Exploring/Expressing Marginalized Identities versus Self-Censorship of Marginalized Identities

Youth highlighted how social media supports sociopolitical identity exploration and expression, particularly of marginalized identities. On the other hand, social media also increased self-censorship, including masking or suppressing parts of their identity, or feeling like their identity is being oversimplified or reduced.

Ali illuminated how the communities he created and fostered on social media made space for vulnerability, exploration, and expression of his many identities in ways that were hard to create in offline spaces. He highlighted the ability of art and visual media to speak on things that have been historically stigmatized or marginalized, like disability and native knowledge, and create opportunities for people to dialog in more diverse ways. He said it was sometimes difficult to articulate the impact and meaning of the images, art, photography, and videos he came across online. However, he felt like they were an important part of developing a critical analysis of his own identity.

Casey also added that on social media, “you can be more open with your identities than in real life.” Naimh highlighted this as well; they felt that social media plays an important role in normalizing the expression of one’s marginalized identities in the broader culture. They said TikTok plays a significant role in marginalized identity exploration and expression.

I think, especially when it comes to your sexual orientation and things like that. And now after the pandemic and like being quarantined, a lot of people joking they’re like 'oh yeah, I’m bi now. Like everyone and their mom is bi, ‘blah blah blah’. Like maybe they are, I don’t know. But people found their sexual identity during COVID quarantine. It’s a joke that everybody is, like it’s a trend or whatever. But I think social media, especially TikTok allows people to be more certain about their sexual identity.

Amy theorized that this happened through critical consciousness-raising about ways in which LGBTQIA+ identities are marginalized. She asserted that “Social media helps you learn more about your sexuality, your race, your ethnicity, etcetera. And by learning, you discover more about yourself.” With respect to racial and ethnic identity, Amy, Jessica, Ali, Elena, Ana, Peter, and Berhane all cited ways that social media helped them explore and build critical racial consciousness and communities for anti-racist organizing. Peter said that social media can be a really powerful tool for critical reflection on race and for keeping anti-racist principles and voices front and center. He shared that,

Social media makes me think more about my identities than I do in real life. Social media has affected my racial-social identity, is it made me think more about it. Actually, that’s not exactly true. I think it makes me think of them differently.

He elaborated by saying,

When you’re online, you don’t really get that much of a vibe of a person, and therefore, it’s less personal. And interacting with people is less personable or whatever. And so, then you’ll latch onto someone’s ‘on paper’ identities more. So when you’re DM’ing someone, I categorize people as like, ‘[school name], Black, straight, man’. Whereas in-person, I categorize the same person I’m thinking of as extroverted, nerdy, or something like that. Just more about their personality, what they’re like, or voice and mannerisms more so. I think the fact that you can’t do that online makes it so you latch on to a person’s race more you’re talking to them.

He theorized that “People would not center effected people, Black people, women, LGBT people as much in conversations about identity or politics as much as they do online.” As a result, he thinks that people are more proactive about accounting for “on paper” power dynamics in their online communication and critical action: “Then that means that White people are more likely to be silent and listen to people of color. Or I’m more likely to not talk about things like blackness and just listen to Black people.”

Ana, who is a child of immigrants, said that this exact dynamic on social media afforded her a unique opportunity to explore and better understand colorism within her community.

And I think colorism is a big thing in Latin America, specifically that a lot of people don’t really like to recognize, especially in my own community and we see this through the representation and who gets to be on TV shows, and who are the influencers and everything and so it’s been something that I’ve learned a lot through social media because of. . . and really listening to the voices of more marginalized communities on social media that has taught me a lot more about my privilege and recognizing that and how to properly utilize that.

For Amy, social media is a source of validation and affirmation of her racial and ethnic experience. She talked about how she had a fear of being judged or doubted for not being able to speak her mother language. Seeing other children of immigrants share a similar experience

made me feel not too bad about it. I knew that I could speak it when I was young, but fear of not pronouncing it right I would stop talking and eventually forget how to speak it. Others had similar experiences.

When discussing her interactions with Asian-led accounts about Asian experiences, she said, “I feel kind of relieved that I am not the only one experiencing things.” By seeing a multitude of anti-Asian racism and hate so visibly online, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, she also highlighted how social media actually provided her with a more social and systemic analysis of her personal experience. She shared that,

Asian hate wasn’t as obvious before COVID, but social media has made it much more noticeable and become more aware that it wasn’t just BLM happening, that it was Asian hate too. It changed my thinking that everything isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

At the same time, participants Jessica and Ali noted how social media can contribute to the exclusion or suppression of diversity within identities based on a series of superficial, phenotypical, or dominant cultural values. Ali, who is trans, talked about how certain figures or moderators within LGBT community spaces can hold a lot of power on social media and that it can be easy for highly visible “debates” to actually perpetuate or amplify damaging narratives that may otherwise not have a platform. He noted that social media can contribute to establishing harmful cultural norms that young trans youth internalize. He gives an example:

Have you heard of neo pronouns? Yeah, those are way more common online and people are more open about it online. And then neo pronouns are like a huge debate, so then there’s negative things. Especially from this one person. He used to be a really big trans YouTuber named Kalvin Garrah. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. But he basically made a whole generation of trans-masculine people hate themselves or just argue a lot or doubt themselves. So there’s that, and that’s obviously not positive.

Kalvin Garrah’s channel has over 300,000 followers, and his videos have over 28 million views. His profile reads, “I talk about being a tranny and rant about stupid shit I find on the internet. I was banned from Twitter, but follow me here: [links Instagram, Tik, Tok & email]” (Garrah, n.d.). In a 17-min video with more than 240,000 views, the YouTuber introduces a video titled “How Neopronouns Hurt Trans People” by saying, “I am going to finally be talking about some discourse that has been rampant on TikTok in the past couple of months. . .” (Garrah, 2020). In the video, Garrah asserts things like “the trans community has like over and over agreed collectively that this is dumb and we don’t like it and we don’t support it.” Ali said that YouTubers like Kalvin Garrah lead to “more self-hated and self-doubt” for himself. Related to the issue of gatekeeping discussed in the previous section, he said this led him to “police” others’ identities in online and offline spaces.

I used to have more similar views to him. I would be like, ‘you’re not a real trans person because of this,’ But I’ve been definitely trying to get away from that because you just don’t know what’s going on in someone’s head.

Jessica, who is biracial and multiethnic, talked about how social media was a barrier to connecting with her racial-ethnic communities online and offline. She described feeling as though her identity was reduced to what can be seen through curated images and text online. She said she commonly receives comments online that reduce, stereotype, and erase her racial-ethnic identity, “They say ‘you doesn’t look or act like it,’ so others don’t know or say ‘you don’t look Black.’” These experiences profoundly impacted her sense of racial belonging online and offline. She said these comments also affected how she engaged with the BLM actions of 2020—making her very concerned about people judging her authenticity, interest, and commitment to the social movement. She was very preoccupied with coming off as performative, rather than feeling any sort of support or empowerment from the movement.

Elena felt that while social media invites youth to share their personal experiences in meaningful ways, it also creates a norm of marginalized organizers “Put[ting] their trauma on the line and describe[ing] how certain things work for people to learn.” She pointed out that using social media as a tool for collective critical consciousness-raising and organizing links antagonists with youth directly. As one’s network widens, the amount of hateful attention can be overwhelming. Elena pointed to ways that social media can act as a lightning rod for being targeted by racists online.

That’s why a lot of organizers delete their Instagrams or take periodic breaks because it’s just so tiring, social media and not just the person organizing. So I definitely think it is pretty harmful, especially when organizers get huge platforms. And then they’re constantly being, especially Black organizers, being gaslit and targeted and traumatized every day because of racist comments or actions on their pages because their pages get so much attention. I think it definitely contributes to activist burnout.

Ali, Jamal, Naimh, and Elena noted that social media increases a young person’s risk of being targeted by law enforcement or hate groups for their participation in social movement activity. In particular, there was a fear of being doxed. Doxing is the act of searching the internet for an individual’s or organization’s private information and releasing that information to individuals or organizations to mobilize action against them. Doxing can be used as a form of social protest, online shaming, and pressuring, and also leads to extortion and vigilante action. Elena said BLM demonstrations would often be live-streamed, which increased their accessibility for young people who could not attend in person. However, this practice also increased protesters’ risks of being identified and targeted by doxing campaigns or law enforcement. Jamal, an African-American immigrant, said that he was hesitant to engage in sociopolitical spaces online because “If someone doesn’t agree with you, he or she could invade your privacy by maybe leaking your address. They would dox you. You know, that happens a lot these days on social media.” As an example, he mentioned a young Mexican woman who talked about immigration online; a White man publicly leaked her address to xenophobic groups and forums. He said, “It made me kind of mad, but at the same time nervous that it would happen to me at some point.”

One participant had been doxed the previous year by a high school classmate who was part of an online alt-right group. They are politically active in leftist movements and attend school in a largely conservative area. They shared the following story.

There actually was a situation at my school with me and my friend. He posted this TikTok video of this guy doing some sort of parkour backflip off of a building or something. . .And so he captioned it, because it was during the election, he was like, ‘oh, Trump supporters, right now,’ or something stupid like that.

And I commented on it, ‘haha.’ I got so much backlash for that. Okay, so for context, this group of teenage boys at my school that pretty much are the [epitome] of a MAGA Trump supporter. . .So they have this group chat with each other, and they send every kind of political thing that somebody else will post in their little group chat.

So they all re-posted my comment on this post and were like, ‘oh my God [name]’s encouraging people to kill themselves.’ Yeah. . .They literally contacted a bunch of organizations, they contacted [name of organization they work for] and a bunch of other things that I do. They contacted our school, and was like ‘[Name] is encouraging people to kill themselves,’ which was not the intent of the post whatsoever. It wasn’t even my post.

They added that the experience felt overwhelming, and they were worried about this event’s short- and long-term consequences.

It was freaking scary. It was literally insane. . .They had their parents contact my mother. I don’t even know how they got my mom’s phone number. They’re contacting school, all this type of stuff. It was legit so scary. I cried because I had a bunch of my friends texting me who were like, 'oh my god, [Name].’ They were posting about how they were calling all these organizations and things that I was a part of.

In addition to fear of doxing, some participants felt the pressure to try to mask their viewpoints or even identities to avoid discrimination in future opportunities. For example, Ali, a 15-year-old multiracial transmasc youth, shared that he masks his gender identity to avoid potential discrimination from college sports recruiters:

If you’re having D1 (competitive division) coaches look at your Instagram, I don’t know how they will react to that. I mean, I don’t know how many trans people have been on the women’s college basketball team. There’s still a lot of transphobia out there.

Limitations

Identity is not a monolith, and this project was rooted in the unique sociocultural context of these youth researchers. As such, the findings from this study cannot be generalized to represent the perspectives and experiences of youth with multiple marginalized identities. Furthermore, generalizability is not a goal of this study. However, the results of this study were constructed using rigorous analytic methods and member-checking, and they illuminate important aspects of the youth online experience. Next, the sociocultural identities of the youth who participated could not be stated due to concerns for confidentiality. This analysis includes quotes from 11 youth in a participatory action research project. The youth in this study have disseminated their research in other papers and community events. While pseudonyms are used in all written materials, we wanted to minimize the risk of youth being indirectly identified by linking their identities with specific data.

The results of this paper are also limited by the size, scale, scope, and context of the study. All of the youth in this study were already interested in issues of social justice, and all of them expressed progressive to leftist ideologies, although their expressed values and beliefs did not always fit neatly into a label. They were also all living and organizing in a generally liberal sociopolitical climate near a mid-sized metropolitan area. Given that online and offline communities and contexts influence their social media experiences, these elements are important to consider when interpreting the results.

Implications for Research and Practice

Activity system analysis enables us to examine more closely the complex web of actions and interactions that may affect youth sociopolitical identity development. This opens up avenues for further research, model design, and testing relationships between specific aspects of youth sociopolitical identity and social media. With respect to social media ICT design, the activity system analysis illuminates potential direct and indirect relationships between certain functions and youth sociopolitical identity development. For example, future research could more deeply explore how a high follower count affects the social-emotional well-being and cognition of youth. Additionally, polling and direct messaging functions can be leveraged as tools to help youth engage in healthier dialog with one another and explore different sociopolitical ideas. The youth also highlighted the importance of both identifiable and anonymous profiles for exploring and expressing marginalized identities—the flexibility of having both allowed them to navigate online risks more effectively and find supportive communities. When considering the potential ways educators and social service providers can support youth sociopolitical identity development, it is helpful to examine the various factors identified in the community aspect of the activity system. For example, adults may consider how they can best support youth in fostering healthy online peer communities with shared racial and gender identities. Additionally, multimedia art was effective for political and social exploration and expression. Educators and providers may consider creating, using, and commissioning art from youth content creators to use in their programing and services. On a macro level, the issues raised in the rules and division of labor components highlight the need for systemic and institutional change. For example, the youth in this study highlighted how cultural norms around community care and interdependence can be fostered online, and that there is more comfort in expressing vulnerability in these online spaces. These are relationships that can be further examined and more intentionally fostered. However, they also pointed to ways that social media reproduces normative assessments of social desirability, overemphasizing outward-facing organizing roles, conflict, and overly high expectations of acquired knowledge for youth to participate in sociopolitical life. Furthermore, social media made youth feel like they needed to reduce their own social identities to what can be seen by others and evaluate their peers’ identities in the same way.