Youth, social networks and identity: a cross-border study from the Basque Country

Abstract

This article analyses the main concerns and attitudes Basque adolescents have with regard to youth identity and social media usage. For that purpose, three techniques were combined to collect data in seventeen schools in the Basque provinces of Gipuzkoa and Labourd: a survey of 1133 students, of whom 242 also completed a diary and 482 took part in discussion groups. The participants mentioned several reasons to post content, including a tendency to want to present a positive image of themselves. It can be concluded that the attitudes of Basque adolescents resemble those found in recent studies from western countries, indicating the same predisposition to externally oriented identities.