Body, identity and images of the self among adolescents. From research to action through Peer&Media Education

Abstract

In recent years, social media have become a mirror for many adolescents: young people experiment online, testing their own limits and possibilities, and they build their identity day by day (Boyd, 2014). The consequences of this new behaviour are important and include sexting (Temple, 2012, 2014), self-exposure, self-objectification and identity manipulation. Many of these behaviours pass through the media themselves, as they work as a sort of megaphone or extensive sharing platform. This paper aims to reach two goals. The first is to share a new perspective with educators and researchers named Peer&Media Education (Ottolini & Rivoltella, 2014)—a model developed in recent years to reach young people and foster their “awareness” of media and their health (Ottolini & Rivoltella, 2014). The result is a new methodological framework fostering the responsible use of social media and digital tools and also helping young people to keep healthy habits. We will present the framework in sections1 and 2. The second goal is to discuss the results of the research Image.ME, run by Cremit, which studied the uses of social network sites, their impact on relationships and identity and the incidence of risky behaviours. In fact, the research is built according to the Peer&Media Education perspective, preventing risky behaviours and supporting media awareness. We will discuss this in section3.

Keywords

• Media Education
• Peer Education
• Peer&Media Education
• digital media
• sexting
• identity
• body
• social network
• prevention