Social Media Naming as Part of Teenager Constructed Identity

English Department, faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University. Jl. Prof. Soedharto, S.H. Semarang, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: dwiwulandari@lecturer.undip.ac.id

Abstract

This study aims at finding how teenagers reveal their identity by naming their social media accounts. There are many factors contributing to the construction of identity, both from the self-concept and also from the social environment. Social media naming is used by teenagers to introduce themselves to the world. This way they can seek confirmation of their identity by confirming their proper names or find themselves new identities, by creating new names. This study is carried out by observing the Instagram accounts of 55 students of Madrasah Aliyah Berstandar Internasional Ammanatul Ummah and taking notes on their names. A guided questionnaire was then given to the students confirming the proper names and motivation behind the creation of the accounts. The result shows that almost all of the students are using their own names in naming their Instagram accounts showing that they are confirming their identity in the real world with the identity in cyberspace. Most of them prefer to use their first name or nickname for the account names, many others use their last names though their last names are not their family names. They also use numbers and punctuation to show their creativity in creating names