The penetration of mobile phone usage in Kenya is nearly 88% with social media becoming an undeniable factor shaping youth's identity in the country. Texting and sharing photos on Facebook (used by 76% of internet users) and Twitter (used by 19% of internet users) is just the basic use of the platform, we are now seeing these social media sites functioning as virtual landscapes where Kenyan youth construct, negotiate and transform their cultural, social and personal identities. This essay will look into the effects of social media on the identity of Kenyan youth and how these platforms can influence their sense of self-belief both online and offline.
Cultural Influence
Social media is a channel for cultural idea transfers, with the rise in internet use over the years we are seeing an increase in diverse cultural narratives that challenge cultural beliefs and practices and create a blurry line between African traditions and global trends. The typical Kenyan youth is exposed to Westernized popular culture that deconstructs the communal expectations of Kenyan youth and remolds them based on Western popular culture. A good example is the Kenyan music scene where the older generation was mostly entertained through indigenous traditional music, rhumba, and contemporary gospel music. With the advent of the internet and increased access to platforms like YouTube, we started seeing the emergence of Kapuka, Urbantone, Genge, and Gengetone amongst other genres of music that infuse American, Latin American, and Caribbean tunes. Which have now become popular amongst Kenyan Youth and Moreover, on the contrary, social media has become a platform for the empowerment of Kenyan Youth to reconnect and celebrate their cultural heritage. This is evident on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, where there is an emergence of pages dedicated to discussing and sensitizing social media users on the various cultural practices from almost all 47 Plus communities.
Identity Formation
The impact of social media on identity formation is complex, it encompasses both positive and negative aspects. On one hand, these platforms are a boiling pot of opportunities for the youth in the creative and content creation industries and we can see Kenyan youth crafting and curating their online personas on platforms like YouTube and Instagram, experimenting with different aspects of their personalities and challenging gender norms in a very fluid and dynamic manner. It has become a canvas where youth can express their talents, interests, and perspectives, hence creating a sense of agency, autonomy, and empowerment. In 2020 a study by the USIU found that escape is one of the key motivations for youth when it comes to the use of social media youth felt social media platforms allowed them to escape the realities of the world and dive into another realm.
However, on the other hand, the negative influence of social media can also exacerbate identity and self-esteem crises amongst the Kenyan youth. The pressure to belong and conform to unrealistic and idealized standards of beauty, success, financial status, and popularity that are propagated by social media influencers is a major factor contributing to this. Social media influencers and some regular users have been known to use scripts, heavily edited photos and videos to portray a fake lifestyle and even in some instances to convince and misinform regular social media users. This in the end has a downside where feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt become evident to some social media users who can not discern what is real and what is not on social media, hence some would react to this by changing their lifestyle, to try and fit in with the trending social media standards. Studies have shown a correlation between increased social media use and body image dissatisfaction among adolescents. Hence it is observed that Kenyan youth end up finding themselves in a never-ending cycle of comparison, measuring their self-worth against scripted social media influencers, personalities, and peers. This is in addition to the anonymity and detachment that social media affords its users, it also encourages the proliferation of inauthentic personalities and inexplicable behaviors further complicating the process of identity formation.
Conclusion
To wind up this essay, it is important to note that the effects of social media on the identity formation of Kenyan youth are multifaceted and complicated and require a deeper interrogation. There are aspects of cultural influence, self-expression, and social comparison that require different specialties to investigate this phenomenon.
These platforms offer endless opportunities for youth in terms of cultural exchange and community building, but they also expose youth to challenges of authentic self-representation and mental well-being. For Kenyan youth to fully harness the transformative change of social media it is imperative to promote early years of digital literacy etiquette, and critical thinking skills and ensure there are proper policies that allow for inclusive digital spaces. Increased educational initiatives and open conversations at the family level about the proper use of the internet and social media are important to empower and educate youth on how to navigate social media platforms mindfully and authentically, hence creating more resilient online identities, well-grounded cultural pride, and collective online well-being. References
Kenya Mobile Phone Penetration Rate 1999-2023 - (https://www.statista.com/statistics/509516/mobile-cellular-subscriptions-per-100-inhabitants-in-kenya/)
Digital 2023 Kenya - (https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-kenya)
Correlation between increased social media use and body image dissatisfaction among adolescents - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001450/)
The Kenyan Social Media Landscape:Trends and Emerging Narratives, 2020 - (https://www.usiu.ac.ke/assets/image/Kenya_Social_Media_Lanscape_Report_2020.pdf)
Psychologically meaningful address in the virtual world - Journal of computer-mediated communication, 1(1), 119-141. (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=34e3a63cd53d3c20fd4289a260c7fe12b5ad8a33)
On the fragmentation of identity - International communication gazette, 72(1-2), 169-182. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/17480485211064453)
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