Since the early 1990s, the Internet has been steadily increasing in importance in our lives. We use the Internet to communicate with friends and family, to shop, and get news and information. Over one third of American households with children had Internet in the year 1999 (Lloyd, 75). As with any new media, we have become concerned with its effect on our children. Concerns about the Internet include exposure of children to obscene material, creating an unhealthy social life, and the danger of Internet predators. But the Internet is also seen as an empowering medium for children. The recent phenomenon of web logging is just one of the avenues for empowerment available for children today.
BLOG QUIZZES AS EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY FORMATION
“We can study the identity crisis also in the lives of creative individuals who could resolve it for themselves only be offering to their contemporaries a new model of resolution such as that expressed in works of art or in original deeds, and who furthermore are eager to tell us all about it in diaries, letters, and self representations.” (Erikson, 134).
“Blog culture” is a new and exciting topic of study. There has already been research into the educational opportunities inherent in online journals, and classrooms have begun to adopt the blog as an educational tool (Brooks, Nichols, Priebe, 1). Studies on the social structure of web communities are also becoming popular, with titles such as “Diary of a Networked Individual: Interpersonal Connections on LiveJournal (Blog Research and References, 2). Yet few have given the recent blog quiz culture a serious look.
In order to understand this quiz culture, we must first examine its context. Weblogs are websites that act as ‘Internet journals’. They are defined as “…a small web site, usually maintained by one person that is updated on a regular basis and has a high concentration of repeat visitors” (Barret,1). Three categories of ‘blogging’ (writing in a weblog) exist: filtering, notebook, and journal. A filter weblog is typically organized around links to information, a notebook contains focused content (personal or otherwise), and a journal contains short entries, often updated daily, concerning the user’s personal life (Brooks, Nichols, Priebe, 4). It is this third type of weblog that is the most popular and what we refer to when we say “blog”.
A myriad of personal publishing (blogging) services currently exist, including Blogger, Xanga, and LiveJournal, which allow users to fill in a form (similar to a diary entry) with text, picture, or links, and provides options to display the user’s current mood, music they are listening to, and a subject for the entry. The completed form is then uploaded to a website like a ‘public diary’, where it is visible to anyone and can be commented on by other bloggers using a similar entry form.
One of the interesting aspects of blogging is the customizability of content. Users can edit font, color, and upload an icon to represent themselves on their personal page. This appeals greatly to adolescents, whose focus on self-expression and trying on identities can now be practiced in a digital way.
The adolescent years are important for exploration and expression, and blogs seem to be increasingly the medium of choice. Today, ninety percent of blog users are between the ages of 13 and 29, and 51% of blog users can be classified as adolescent, between 13 and 19 years old (Nussbaum, 1). An article in the NY Times article describes the possibilities of blogs for teens:
“At heart, an online journal is like a hyperflexible adolescent body - but better, because in real life, it takes money and physical effort to add a piercing, or to switch from zip-jacketed mod to Abercrombie prepster. LiveJournal or Blurty offers a creative outlet with a hundred moving parts.” (Nussbaum, 4)
THE ADOLESCENT IDENTITY CRISIS
Erik Erikson, in his book Identity: Youth, and Crisis, describes the adolescent years as a time of identity crisis, in which the some of the adolescent’s main concerns become appearance, comparing others’ feelings to their own, and how to connect the skills of their childhood to the ideal prototypes of adulthood (Erikson, 128).
The identity crisis comes in stages, first the adolescent has a need to establish trust in themselves and others; they begin to look for people (and ideas) to have faith in, or to prove themselves worthy of trust in. Alternatively, adolescents are afraid of being too trusting, and will often show cynical mistrust.
During the second stage, the adolescent is “defined by what one can will freely”, he or she looks for chances to make decisions for him/herself, with particular regards to duty and service. At the same time, adolescents are hypersensitive to being forced into anything, often because they are afraid of being exposed to a situation in which they could be ridiculed, teased, or made to doubt themselves (Erikson, 128).
Adolescence is a time of questioning the self and others. The main questions that adolescents ask are those concerning purpose, meaning, and direction in their lives; they include the ideological (religion, politics, philosophy, lifestyle) and the interpersonal (friendship, dating, recreation, sex roles). Along with these questions comes a time of intense self consciousness, and self awareness, which can be defined as “centering on the self within the context of others” (Adams, Abraham, & Markstrom, 293).
The peer culture is a very important part of the life of the adolescent. Adolescents are constantly adjusting and developing their identity in relation to others. This is particularly seen in early adolescence (13-17 years) when group identity is an important concept (Brown & Lohr, 48). Erikson describes peer interaction as a way for the adolescent to move away from their parents’ views (accepted as a child) to differing viewpoints (by exploring peers’ views), eventually making choices regarding their own concept of self (Lloyd, 77).
QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY: THE ONLINE JOURNAL QUIZ
“The adolescent is continually constructing, or reacting to, an imaginary audience” (qtd in Lloyd, 79)
The use of a blog provides the adolescent with a way of interacting with others in a relatively anonymous way. They are able to explore taboo subjects, such as sex and drugs, along with a wide variety of topics of interest in an open community. A comment feature allows friends or strangers to provide feedback, which can serve to challenge the views of the author and help them evaluate their stance on certain issues. In this way, users can shape and mold their philosophical identities.
An option to add “Friends”, fellow users who can view your entries, enables select others to have access to the user’s protected (hidden) entries, and helps to establish relationships within the online community. Users may add friends from school, as well as people they have met online in chat rooms, or users whose blogs they frequently read. To be granted access to protected entries (or even entirely protected journals), users must earn the trust of the blogger they want to befriend.
The role of television in identity development has been studied, showing that “…the adolescent viewer uses the video as a vehicle for cognitive exploration that involves ‘trying on’ of possible selves” (Lloyd, 85). This idea can also translate to the Internet. Using blogs, adolescents can attribute meaning through self-perception and the perception of others. Users can even create a pseudo-physical identity through customization of the look of their blog site. The LiveJournal service allows paying users to redesign the look of their blog using a programming language, while also allowing certain overrides for users with free accounts. They also provide up to 3 different user pictures for display (15 for paid accounts), which the user can change per entry.
Another way of building online identity is through quizzes and surveys. Similar to the quizzes found in youth magazines, online quizzes offer ‘insight’ into various aspects of your life (personality, habits, taste in partners) through a series of multiple choice questions, which result in one of a few outcomes. Online quizzes have long been available on websites, and vary in subject matter and seriousness. A sampling of quizzes can include anything from personality test based on psychological scales, to irrelevant topics such as Who is Your Star Wars Twin? (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 96).
Recently, quizzes have been created that allow the user to copy an HTML code of their results and post it into their blog, enabling all of their readers to see the results. Bloggers use posted quiz results by the dozen, building a collection of images and text to represent themselves. This contrasts magazine and early web quizzes, which are more of a solitary activity done to gain personal insight, with the results only being seen by the quiz taker. The new social nature of quizzes enables friends to view the results and take the quiz for themselves to compare outcomes. The interconnectivity of blog communities allows the quizzes to spread fast and far, and users will see a popular quiz appearing everywhere. LiveJournal, in particular, has 430 users that list ‘quizzes’ as an interest, and 246 communities that do the same (Livejournal.com). Sites have been created that host only quizzes, such as Bzoink.com, MemeGen.net, and Quizilla.com, which allow users to take and create their own quizzes.
But what do this quiz results really say about their users? Are they a form of entertainment or something more? I believe that the large appeal of quizzes is due to the fact that they address questions and concerns that most adolescents have during identity crisis.
I propose to create a set of quizzes aimed at adolescents, which will allow me assess and gain insight into the stage of identity development that has been achieved. There will be three separate quizzes, taken in sequence, which will each address a different topic beginning with a more broad questioning, moving then into questions about relationships, and finally about the self.
The effect of taking the quizzes in sequence will be to ‘build’ a virtual identity. Each quiz result will display an image that is a piece of a larger portrait. This uses the idea of the ‘exquisite corpse’, an art activity in which participants each draw a specified segment of the body (head, torso, legs) without seeing the drawings of the other participants, and then compile a collaged portrait. The quiz results will create a collage of images that form a portrait, which can be used as a way for the user to represent his or herself online (Figure 1). At the same time, it will serve as a way to collect information about adolescent blog user without needing to create an additional survey.
I have chosen to target the LiveJournal service as the site of my research, because it is one of the more popular sites within the adolescent community, and it will be easier to track the spread of the quiz by focusing on one server. Quiz results will initially be posted on a volunteer’s LiveJournal, and will only spread through the connections within the blogs. A link will be provided with the results that points to the site where the quiz can be taken. Users can only access the link through reading others’ blogs.
Each quiz will consist of a series of questions concerning topics within the realm of the subject. The quiz will be in a multiple-choice format, in which the user chooses from a set of answers given to them. Using James Marcia’s Four Identity Statuses as a theoretical basis, the choices for answers will fall under one of three categories - pre crisis, crisis, and post crisis. These were adapted from four statuses: Identity Diffused/Confused (no identity crisis), Foreclosed (no crisis, but the adolescent has made commitments to certain beliefs, often adopting those of the parent), Moratorium (acute crisis, the adolescent is caught between boredom and distress as he/she actively searches for beliefs), and Identity Achieved (the adolescent has formulated his/her own beliefs, values, and strong self-perception) (Lloyd, 79). I chose to combine the first two stages into one category for sake of simplicity, as they both indicate no immediate identity crisis. Every adolescent moves through each of these four stages on their way to developing an identity. They do not directly correspond to age, but it can be generalized that early adolescence can be considered a time of Identity Diffusion, and late adolescence/early adulthood as a time when Identity Achievement usually occurs.
For the sake of this study, I will be making some generalizations concerning each stage. I will describe pre-crisis as early adolescence (12-14), when morals and values are not questioned, and are often adopted from parents. There is little questioning concerning moral and philosophical ideals (Lloyd, 79), and group identity is an important part of one’s perception of self (Brown & Lohr, 48).
Crisis has many elements, a few of which were described earlier (trust and free will), as well as a questioning of values, a constant assessing of personal strengths/weaknesses, self-testing, and comparison to others occurs (Adams, Abraham, & Markstrom, 293). There is an emphasis on the expression of feelings (Erikson, 130).
A resolution of identity occurs in post-crisis and can be seen through an increasing ability to overcome anxiety in interpersonal relationships (Lloyd, 78) and “an integrated understanding of his or her own personal identity and its relationship to the views of others” (Lloyd, 79).
The answers will each be assigned a value indicating pre-crisis-1pt, crisis-2pt, post-crisis-3pt. When the user chooses an answer, the corresponding value is added to a numerical sum. Once the quiz is completed, the values will then be totaled. There will be three possible results, chosen based on the sum received by the answers. The results will be displayed as an image, with a text explanation, and HTML code will be provided for the user to copy and paste into his or her blog (Figure 2). The user will then be encouraged to continue the process and take the next quiz in the sequence. Instructions will be provided that tell the user to paste the HTML in a specific arrangement in order to create the collage. It is not required that the user do this, and it will be interesting to see what variations may occur. A total of nine different images/text are possible as results; the sequence in which the quizzes are taken allow for a large variation in the resulting collages (Figure 3).
The content on the quizzes will be phrased to appeal to adolescents and will avoid sounding critical or like a psychological evaluation. The first quiz will address general questions including age and gender, and the subsequent quizzes will address more specific and personal topics. The user does not know that the answers are signifying their level of identity formation, only that they are entertaining and will provide possible insight and an appealing result.
Prototypes:
Quiz #1: What Is Your World Made Of?
This quiz will set the tone by asking age, gender, and general perceptions of home and family, all geared toward
telling the user the ‘substance’ of their world.
The three results will be A. “Green Grass” (pre-crisis) B. “Quicksand” (crisis) and C. “Solid Ground” (post-crisis), with accompanying images of feet standing upon grass, sand, and rock, respectively.
Quiz #2: Who is in Your World?
The second quiz asks questions about trust in friends, romantic relationships,
and generally addresses the role of ‘the other’ in the user’s ‘world’.
Quiz #3: How Do You See Your World?
The final quiz will focus in on personal perceptions of the self and the future. It
will ask questions about self-esteem, anxiety, and expression.
Results will be
A.“Shut Tight” (pre-crisis) picturing closed eyes, B. “Blindfolded” (crisis)
and C. “Open” (post crisis).
Sample Question:
Whose opinions matter the most to you?
A. Parents’ (indicates pre-crisis)
B. Friends’ (indicates crisis)
C. My own (indicates post-crisis)
All quiz answers will be catalogued on a database after the ‘submit’ button is pressed, keeping a record of all completed quizzes for study. By examining the information provided by the quiz, with relation to age and frequency of results, I will be able to study the percentage of adolescent LiveJournal quiz-takers that are in identity crisis. This will provide evidence for further studies into the importance of the online quiz in helping form identity.
It has often been thought that the Internet is not a valid place to gather psychological data from, due to the anonymity that the network provides (we often hear the phrase “On the internet no one knows you are a dog”). However, recent studies are beginning to disprove this assumption. The article “Should We Trust Web Based Studies?: A Comparative Analysis of Six Preconceptions About Internet Questionnaires” addresses specific problems of collecting data in this way (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 93). The authors created two self-report questionnaires, one called “All About You - A Guide to Your Personality” and “Find Your Star Wars Twin,” which users would take at a website. The data collected from the results of these quizzes showed that Internet questionnaires are a reliable source of data, comparable to paper and pencil surveys (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 93). However, they do warn against the possibility of ‘repeat offenders’, persons who take the quizzes multiple times in attempt to get different results. Some precautions they suggest are to show all possible results (reducing the motivation to repeat), using an Internet protocol address (which is logged by the web server) to identity multiple responses from one computer, and providing a question that asks if the user has previously taken the quiz (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 101).
The Internet provides an advantage over pencil and paper questionnaires because it can provide wider access and efficiency in collection, allowing larger samples of data over a relatively short period of time (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 93). Blogs, in particular, are a great way to spread a questionnaire, as no additional advertisement is needed once it is posted. Companies have started to use this as an advertising method, as evidenced by the recent quizzes from CookingToHookUp.com, which use the popularity and appeal of quizzes to draw users to their site.
Using the quiz as a method of evaluation will provide a set of results that ordinary questionnaires could not produce. The unique nature of the blog community presents an accepting and relatively available audience for study. It is my hope that the quiz method will become a valuable addition to the way we study children online.
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References:
Adams, Gerald R., Abraham, Kitty G., & Markstrom, Carol Ann. 1987. The Relations Among Identity Development, Self-Conscious, and Self-Focusing During Middle and Late Adolescence. Developmental Psychology Vol 23, No 2 (pp 292-297)
Barret, Cameron. 1999. Anatomy of a Weblog. Camworld.
Blog Research and References. 2004.
Brooks, Kevin, Nichols, Cindy, & Priebe, Sybil ,2004. Remediation, Genre, and Motivation: Key Concepts for Teaching with Weblogs. Into the Blogsphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture Weblogs.
Brown, B. Bradford & Lohr Mary Jane. Peer-Group Affiliation and Adolescent Self-Esteem An Integration of Ego-Identity and Symbolic-Interaction Theories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Vol 52, No 1 (pp 47-55)
Erikson, Erik. 1968. Identity Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton.
Gosling, Samuel D., Vazire, Simine, Srivastava, Sanjay, & John, Oliver P. 2004. Should We Trust Web Based Studies?: A Comparative Analysis of Six Preconceptions About Internet Questionnaires. American Pschologist Vol 59, No 2, (pp. 93-104)
Lloyd, Blake Te’Neil. 2002. A Conceptual Framework for Examining Adolescent Identity, Media Influence, and Social Development. Review of General Psychology Vol 6, No 1 (pp. 73-91)
Michalak, Erin E. & Szabo, Attila. 1998. Guidelines for Internet Research: An Update. European Psychologist Vol 3, No 1 (pp 70-75)
Nussbaum, Emily. 2004. My So-Called Blog. The New York Times Online
Weblog Services:
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