Youth identities: what they are, examples and how they are expressed in young people

It is known that adolescence is a time of great change but also of search, among other things, for one's own identity.

We are going to take a tour about the concept of youth identities to know what exactly it implies and why it is so important for the correct development of adolescents at various levels, such as psychological but also social.

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What are youth identities?

Youth identities refer to each adolescent's search for who he really is, both for himself and as a member of a society. But it is not only a process of search, but also of choice. It should not be forgotten that the human being is a social animal and therefore it is essential for his development, which occurs when he begins his transition to adult life, to find his place in the tribe.

These youth identities can acquire a high degree of complexity and are not necessarily static. What does this mean? That an adolescent at a given moment can find an identity with which he identifies and feels comfortable, but after a while, which may be brief or longer, you may decide that this identity no longer fully represents you and may embark on a search for another to please.

It is convenient to make a clarification between two aspects of youth identities, since on the one hand they can refer to personal identity and on the other to group identity. The first one is what the person needs to be able to know and express who he is, by himself. It is the image he has of himself and the one he projects to others, the one by which others know him and know who and how he is. It's about what makes you unique and special.

The group or social identity, on the contrary, although it also projects characteristics of the person itself, it does so in relation to the group to which he belongs, being classified into a specific group that is characterized by a series of traits, whether physical, behavioral, clothing or any other nature. Sometimes the social identity is chosen by the person himself, but sometimes it is others who attribute this label to him, even if the individual has not chosen it personally.

Within youth identities, what we saw as personal identity or self-identity, has a great importance for the adolescent's subsequent self-esteem, since it correlates in a direct. That is, if a person has a positive personal identity, this will most likely generate high self-esteem. On the contrary, young people with a negative self-identity will tend to suffer from low self-esteem.

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Why They Matter and How They Affect Young People

We have already seen that With the arrival of adolescence, the process of choosing between the different youth identities begins. But why is this process so important? The search and choice of identity is of vital importance in the adolescent. We already anticipated, for example, the relationship that identity has with one's own self-esteem, which is already a sign of the scope of this issue, but it does not stop there.

The same path of exploration already has a great value in itself, because in the search for that of youthful identities in which the If the adolescent believes they can be a better fit, they will be able to review a variety of values ​​and beliefs to see if they correspond to their own to be or not. That is, you will be able to know yourself, You will be able to assign a self-concept and you will be able to know what your role is in the society in which you live.

Of course, this process is not always so quick and easy. On many occasions it is slow, bumpy and generates identity crises in adolescents that they experience as something very dramatic, and no wonder. It is distressing to know that something does not fit in you, that you have not yet found yourself and what is worse, not knowing what to do to turn the situation around.

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Examples of youth identities

We have already seen that youth identities can be attributed to both self-identity and social identity. According to the second categorization, we can find an infinity of groups, colloquially known as urban tribes, where many adolescents find the traits that satisfy the image they seek and also the support of a group of belonging made up of equals with whom they can share their thoughts and Actions.

The urban tribes that serve as examples for the search for youth identities are many. We are going to review some of the most frequent ones.

1. Gamers

Although video games are not something new, what is certain is that in recent years they have become popular as never before, especially powered by the possibilities of online gaming and thanks to the influence of famous youtubers, which many children and adolescents want to emulate from their computers. Therefore, that of gamers is one of the most important youth identities of our days.

Anyone with teenagers or pre-teens will be familiar with titles like Fortnite, League of Legends (popularly known as LoL) or Minecraft, either because they play, because they watch games of their favorite streamers through platforms such as YouTube or Twitch, or both. The truth is that the world of videogames has changed forever and that has enhanced one of the youthful ideals that already existed, attracting many more young people than in past generations.

2. Mops

The term can be misleading for those who are already a certain age, but the truth is that rags are lovers of trap music, a modern genre that gathers hordes of followers among the youngest and therefore represents one of the most popular youth identities. It's not just about the music. As often happens, this urban tribe has its own dress code and even a way of speaking and to behave.

Saving the distances, they could be equated with rappers, another urban tribe especially popular in the 2000s, which also revolved around a specific musical genre that also implied a specific fashion style as well as customs and linguistic expressions that gave them an identity own.

3. Otakus

Another of the youth identities that has undergone enormous expansion in recent years is that of otakus. It's about all that group of young people in love with Japanese culture. These people regularly consume a multitude of entertainment products from Asia, mainly from Japan. For example, they usually read manga, watch anime series or play video games from Japanese studios (the famous RPG saga, Final Fantasy, is a good example of this).

They even listen to music from Japanese pop groups, a genre known as J-Pop, or K-Pop, if they come from South Korea instead. Even in the culinary field they prefer Japanese food, so it is not uncommon for them to enjoy eating sushi, ramen or gyozas. Of course, that of the otakus is one of the youthful identities that most influences all aspects of the lives of its members.

4. "Addicts" to social networks

Without a doubt, one of the tools that adolescents use the most is social networks. The intensive use of these defines by itself another of the youth identities, which would be the "addicts" to these platforms. Today, Instagram and especially TikTok, among the youngest, are essential apps With which they constantly check the updates of their friends or their idols and also share their own.

Obsessed with the digital world, young people believe that not being on social media means giving up the possibility of interacting with your peers, so for them it is almost (and sometimes in fact it is) a addiction. Networks are very useful as a form of communication and it is true that they can be enriching in the search for group identities, but, like everything else, they must be used with measure and responsibility.

Of course, this is where the supervision of the adults in charge comes into play and the education in this regard that is provided to the adolescent children so that they do not exert an abusive or dangerous use of social networks, but it does help them to find among youth identities the one that best suits them. they.

Bibliographic references:

• Cortés, T.A. (2008). Subculture, Counterculture, Urban Tribes and Youth Cultures: Homogenization or Differentiation? Argentine journal of sociology.
• Dayrell, J. (2003). Youth culture and identities. Last decade.
• Reyes, A. (2009). The secondary school as a space for the construction of youth identities. Mexican journal of educational research.
• Silva, J.C. (2002). Youth and urban tribes: in search of identity. Last decade.