DIGITAL IDENTITY IN YOUNGER STUDENTS. ETHICAL EDUCATION FOR MANAGING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SELF

Abstract

Nowadays, more and more young people are finding in social networks a space of socialization, with ways to express and exchange patterns of behavior and education. Due to digital hyperconnectivity, technology is so immersed in our lives that it is currently a fundamental part of our ways of social interaction. In the case of the youngest generations, this interaction is combined with a stage of adolescence in which they begin to build their identities. The paper explores how does this construction of identity in a virtual exposed world affects the youngers, in terms of autonomy and responsibility. Also, the correspondence of this virtual construction with different ways of thinking, being and/or acting in social networks. And finally, to what extent these ways of being are considered as an identity in transition, as a trend, that could be pass with the up-growing of the personality and evolving of the social and professional roles. An in depth analysis of recently published studies and reports on this topic (Adults’ media use and attitudes, 2018, from Ofcom; and Life in Likes, 2018, by Children ́s Commissioner) is presented, to bring about evidence about how post-millennials young people handle the digital construction of identity and how it could affect them at a socio-educational level, with impacts towards the next generation of classroom students. Paper concludes with some ethical considerations for the education agents, in order to empower youngers in their effective management and construction of a virtual self.