Confessional Identity Performatives: College Student Individualization on Social Network Sites

• In Event: Social Media, Popular Culture, and Higher Education

Abstract

As the body of research and literature on social network sites (SNSs) and social media continues to grow, one particular gap becomes clearer: the need to explore the influence of SNSs on college students’ identity performatives and self-expression. Using a cultural studies lens, this theoretical paper intersects the ideas of individualization, identity performatives, and confessions as rituals that produce truth to explore the implications of college students’ use of SNSs to create confessional identity performatives that preference uncritical forms of social conformity and reinforce problematic forms of individualization within contemporary society.

Author

• David Kasch, University of California - Los Angeles