Interview

Interview

I interviewed a 14 year old, gay, African-American male who used Facebook to “come out”. I was interested to find out how  his social media presence and personal identity was affected.

1). Which form of social media do you prefer and why?

I would say Facebook because even though I have all these friends at school there are people I can’t get in contact with unless I’m on Facebook, like I have family that lives in Hawaii, Arizona, and Kentucky. Like its good to be connected in one type of way even if we are not there together.

2). How do you think facebook has affected your social life?

I think it’s maybe better because it’s like we talk to people on the Internet is easier than for me to talk to people in person, boosts my confidence and stuff like that. I think it helps me better. When I put on Facebook that I was gay I got a lot of negative comments like, “oh, no don’t say that.” but some people were really good. That’s why I say it helped my confidence and it makes it easier for me to talk to people.

3) How connected to do think you are?

I think we are connected but not connected. Like we’re connected cause we’re talking to each other and having fun and hanging out in a type of way but just because we’re talking doesn’t mean we’re really there together. Like we can talk but we’re not there with each other. So even though we think we’re connected we are not really connected at all. We still thousands of miles apart.

4.) Have you used social media for any other reasons than just Facebook?

I used to have a Kick but that was really boring cause I just texted people I already knew and I had their phone numbers so there was really no point of texting them on Kicks.Instagram is really boring you don’t see anything but pictures.

5). Do you belong to any groups?

On facebook I am part of this Anime group cause I like to stay caught up on my Anime.

6). Would you consider yourself a geek when it comes to Anime?

Yes, I love Anime.

The responses that my student gave are supported by Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., Boyd, D., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lang, P.G., Pascoe, C.J., & Robinson, L. (2009) article. The authors state when discussing the friendship nature of online networks, “ Our description of friendship-driven learning describes a familiar genre of peer-based learning, in which online networks are supporting those sometimes painful but important lessons in growing up, giving youth an environment to explore romance, friendship, and status just as their predecessors did” (p. 11). My student chose to use Facebook as the vehicle for making public his sexual orientation. While he did receive some negative feedback, he still saw social media as helping to boost his confidence. The authors also stated, “.., for many gay teens the Internet can become a place to explore their identities beyond the hetoerosexual normativity of their everyday lives” (p. 18). My student found that he felt more comfortable talking to people on the Internet than he did face-to face. This might be a direct result of his need to explore his own identity while at the same time gauging the acceptance of his sexual orientation by his friends.

In addition, the authors note that students often transition from using online resources  to hang out, friendship-driven activities, to messing around, interest-driven activities. This was evidenced in my interview as the student stated that he had joined an online group based on his interest in Anime. This group allowed him to stay connected to what was new in the Anime world.

Overall, it was interesting to to talk with a young person about his usage of online resources. His reactions and statements were clearly supported by research. It was also interesting that I used my phone to record his interview, another way in which new technologies have affected our everyday lives.

References

Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., Boyd, D., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lang, P.G., Pascoe, C.J., & Robinson, L. (2009). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. Retrieved from  https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262513654_Living_and_Learning.pdf