HomeAbstract of 13th-hsconfAdolescence, Identity, and the Politics of Recognition in the Social Media Era: Being and Becoming after the Algorithmic Turn

Adolescence, Identity, and the Politics of Recognition in the Social Media Era: Being and Becoming after the Algorithmic Turn

  • Jun 3, 2026
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Abstract Book of the 13th International Conference on New Findings in Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Adolescence, Identity, and the Politics of Recognition in the Social Media Era: Being and Becoming after the Algorithmic Turn

Dr. Rachel Billington

ABSTRACT:

The widespread adoption and pervasive reach of social media technologies since the mid-2000s has changed the terrain of social, political, and epistemic ecosystems across the globalised world, and yet there is little research about how these new dynamics are experienced by those who are growing up within it, or how algorithmic technologies come to influence adolescents’ (political) identities. To explore this gap, research was conducted with New Zealand teens aged 16 to 18, demonstrating how young people’s political orientations are informed by the dynamic interplay between their relationships with others and the digital architectures that mediate those relationships. Drawing from the insights of 494 teenaged survey respondents and a further 21 in-depth interviews, subjective experiences of recognition and belonging—or misrecognition and alienation—emerge as pivotal in shaping young people’s perceptions and interpretations of the world and their place within it. Social media plays a fundamental role in this process, as both a space for forging belonging and sustaining interpersonal connections, and a powerful environment for shaping the epistemic resources through which meaning is made. This paper discusses these findings, due for publication as a monograph in 2026, offering insight into the ways that young people’s autonomy and capacities for recognition are both enhanced and inhibited by algorithmic social media technologies. Furthermore, this paper reflects on the normative and transformative potential of recognition theory as a framework for social research and intervention.

Keywords: Adolescence; Identity; Recognition Theory; Social Media; Technojustice