The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 66 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Informal learning and identity formation in online social networks
Abstract
All students today are increasingly expected to develop technological fluency, digital citizenship, and other twenty‐first century competencies despite wide variability in the quality of learning opportunities schools provide. Social network sites (SNSs) available via the internet may provide promising contexts for learning to supplement school‐based experiences. This qualitative study examines how high school students from low‐income families in the USA use the SNS, MySpace, for identity formation and informal learning. The analysis revealed that SNSs used outside of school allowed students to formulate and explore various dimensions of their identity and demonstrate twenty‐first century skills; however, students did not perceive a connection between their online activities and learning in classrooms. We discuss how learning with such technologies might be incorporated into the students’ overall learning ecology to reduce educational inequities and how current institutionalized approaches might shift to accommodate such change.
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In the citing paper
“Four studies suggested that adolescents who edited their profiles, shared posts or content, and created blog entries were more likely to engage in identity exploration (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009; Livingstone, 2008; Manzi et al., 2018; Mazur & Kozarian, 2010).”
From A Systematic Review of Social Media Use and Adolescent Identity Development (2025) · cites this paper as Greenhow & Robelia, 2009
In the citing paper
“Studies suggested that adolescents presenting themselves by playing with different looks (Chittenden, 2010), testing different roles (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009) and answering questions about who they were (Farrugia et al., 2019), and pretending to be someone else (Kennedy & Lynch, 2016; Lichy et al., 2022; Schmitt et al., 2008) tended to explore their identities.”
From A Systematic Review of Social Media Use and Adolescent Identity Development (2025) · cites this paper as Greenhow & Robelia, 2009
In the citing paper
“Our findings also suggest that self-presentation strategies are common among adolescents on social media. These strategies include playing with appearance to present an ideal self, impersonating others, and creating fictitious profiles, all of which can be part of one’s identity exploration (Chittenden, 2010; Greenhow & Robelia, 2009; Kennedy & Lynch, 2016; Schmitt et al., 2008)”
From A Systematic Review of Social Media Use and Adolescent Identity Development (2025) · cites this paper as Greenhow & Robelia, 2009
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship in a Digital Age
Greenhow, C. M., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J. E. (2009) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x09336671 · Cited by 1,274
Self-citationSocial media and education: reconceptualizing the boundaries of formal and informal learning
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Old Communication, New Literacies: Social Network Sites as Social Learning Resources
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Metadata
- Authors
- Greenhow, C., & Robelia, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Greenhow, Christine
- Venue
- Learning, Media and Technology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-06
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 119-140
- ISSN
- 1743-9884 (ISSN-L)
- 1743-9892
- OpenAlex
- W1984192841
- Cited by
- 456
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 60 · 2014: 40 · 2013: 47 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 417.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Learning Media and Technology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Literacy, Media, and Education
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Technology in Learning
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- informal learning, identity construction, social network sites, MySpace, high school students, low-income households, 21st century skills, digital citizenship, technological fluency, educational inequity, school-based learning
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