Young Women and Identity Formation on Social Media: Lessons from Indonesia

Abstract

Social media, smartphones, tablets, and various devices generate new techniques, rituals, and different practices of self-construction. For young women, social media platforms facilitate the process of learning about and negotiate their sense of self from peers and other users. This chapter explores post-structuralist approaches to identity and subject formation and then moves to look into two case studies on young women and collective identity politics online. Drawing on studies of Indonesian young women, this chapter suggests that studies on youth identity online should be open to differences, ambiguity, and contradictions.