YouTubers videos and the construction of adolescent identity/Los youtubers y la construcción de la identidad adolescente

• Published in: Comunicar (Huelva, Spain) Spain), 2018-04, Vol.26 (55), p.61
• Main Authors: Perez-Torres, Vanesa, Pastor-Ruiz, Yolanda, Ben-Boubaker, Sara Abarrou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1134-3478
• DOI: 10.3916/C55-2018-06

The main objective of this research is to analyze the content of YouTuber's videos that have the greatest impact on adolescents and their relationship with the construction of identity. The YouTube platform is one of the most commonly used by Spanish teenagers and around 70% of young people between 14 and 17 years of age prefer this network. YouTubers are perceived by young people as their equals, close people who share similar traits to their own, which facilitates rapid identification. A qualitative analysis of the content of 22 videos on the YouTube platform was carried out using the Atlas.ti program. The analysis led to several emerging codes related to the construction of adolescent personal identity. Most of the messages relating to personal identity were aimed at transmitting the self-impression of the YouTuber and the relationship of that self-impression with his gender identity, sexual orientation, and vocational identity. Also, family and peers appeared in the videos, especially as providers of social support. Teen followers include messages to support YouTubers, express their identification with the messages and use comment spaces to describe their own experiences, expressing the same concerns in the configuration of their identity. It is necessary to take into account this new space of interrelation to understand the development of young people's identity. KEYWORDS Adolescence, identity, adolescent development, psychology, youtubers, YouTube, social network, Internet. El objetivo general de esta investigacion consiste en analizar el contenido de los videos de los youtubers de mayor impacto entre los adolescentes y su relacion con la construccion de la identidad. La plataforma YouTube es una de las mas utilizadas por los adolescentes espanoles, ya que alrededor del 70% de los jovenes entre 14 y 17 anos prefieren esta red. Los youtubers son percibidos por los jovenes como sus iguales, personas cercanas que comparten rasgos similares a los suyos, lo que facilita la rapida identificacion con ellos. Se ha realizado un analisis cualitativo del contenido de 22 videos de la plataforma YouTube mediante el programa Atlas.ti. El analisis ha dado lugar a varios codigos emergentes relacionados con la construccion de la identidad personal en la adolescencia. La mayoria de los mensajes sobre la identidad personal estaban orientados a transmitir la autodefinicion que hace el youtuber sobre si mismo y la relacion de esa autoimagen con su identidad de genero, or