Research + News | Topic: Identity

What We Can Learn About Leading Students From Instagram

How should some recent experiments and changes on Instagram inform our leadership? Read the blog post from Tim Elmore here.

China’s Selfie Culture: Youth Obsessed With The Power Of Appearances

Meitu’s popular apps and a flippant attitude towards plastic surgery are changing what it means to be beautiful, but the result is not always pretty. Read the article here.

How Teens Use Fake Instagram Accounts To Relieve The Pressure Of Perfection

Fake Instagram accounts, often referred to as “finstas” or “spam accounts”, have become the norm for many teens – but their reasoning for creating these is not as sinister as you think. Read the article here.

Through Social Media, Teens Learn From Others’ Stories And Stand Up For Their Beliefs

Viacom research revealed that through social media, teens experience the power of hearing others’ voices – and of using their own. Read the article here.

Teens And The Distorted Reality Of Social Media

Instagram, Snapchat, Photoshop and special filters have created an aura of plastic beauty that makes our girls and boys feel less than, every second they scroll down their smartphone’s screen.

Read the full article here.

Instagram, Wattpad and YouNow Aren’t Just Apps – For Many Teens, They’re More Than That

Generation Z, the youngest wave of teens shaping the zeitgeist, is finding and building its own supportive, inclusive communities online — ones that stretch far beyond the cafeteria table. Read the article here.

A Quarter of Brits Fake Vacation Photos Online

The pressure to make other people feel miserable about their dreary, deskbound existences is so great that many of us have taken to faking images of our allegedly fabulous holidays. Read the article here.

Parents, Our Children Are Going Viral And It’s Not Always Good

Every day we have kids trending across social media for doing the stupidest things in the world. Read the article here.

Is Social Media Fueling A National Epidemic Of Teen Suicide?

Recent suicides underscore the disturbing increase in suicide amongst young people – up at least 13% from 2010. Read the article here.

The Surprisingly Depressing Experience of Going Viral

A viral video star writes about what overnight Internet fame taught him about real community, for Relevant Magazine. Read the article here.