CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 19Impact of Technology on AdolescentsTechnology Use by Older AdultsDigital Media and Philosophy

Expressions of Individualization on the Internet and Social Media: Multigenerational Focus Group Study

Open access
Mayer, Gwendolyn, Alvarez, Simone, Gronewold, Nadine, Schultz, Jobst-Hendrik·2020·Journal of Medical Internet Research
DOI 10.2196/20528PMC PMC7673976

Published version of a preprint

Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Background: Growing individualization within the past decades has been described as a fundamental shift in society. Studies have reported how the digital age promotes new forms of individualism with self-tracking technologies and self-presentation in social networks. Potential harmful effects on the mental health of young adults have already been at the forefront of research. However, 2 questions that remain unanswered are how emotional experiences and expressions of self-relatedness differ among generations in their usage of the internet and social media, and if an increasing individualism can be observed by this. Objective: The aim of this study is to examine whether the use of the internet and social media has led people to be more concerned about themselves than former generations. The potential consequences of mental and emotional distress among different age groups are analyzed. Methods: A focus-group approach was chosen to study the following age groups: Baby Boomers (those born in 1950-1965), Generation X (those born in 1966-1980), and Digital Natives (those born in 1981-2000). We organized 6 focus groups with 36 participants who discussed their private usage of the internet and social media, different devices, platforms and functions, communication behavior, and self-tracking. We applied inductive category formation and followed the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) checklist. Results: We found differences in the 3 studied generations regarding the reasons for their use of the internet and social media, the effects of this use, personal feelings and experiences, expressions of self-relatedness, and social relationships. The Baby Boomers voiced a wish to stay autonomous while being in contact with their personal network. Generation X included enthusiastic members who appreciate self-tracking for curiosity and fascination, as well as people who felt fears about data surveillance. The Digital Natives reported a wish to optimize their own body by self-tracking while being faced with norms and expectations that were communicated via the internet and social media. Conclusions: All generations expressed self-relatedness, yet by different means. The Baby Boomers expressed less individualism than Generation X and the Digital Natives, who felt the highest strain due to social comparisons. However, all generations reported specific, potentially problematic consequences for their mental health. Age-specific coping strategies are necessary to promote a mentally healthy way of using the internet and social media.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2196/20528

Cites

55 of 55 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • It is increasingly common for social media users to create all private accounts or to have separate private and public accounts.

    “It is increasingly more common for social media users either to create all private accounts or to have separate private and public accounts.17–19”

    From Evaluating perceptions of social media professionalism by healthcare workers (2026) · cites this paper as [19]

    The Introduction (Identity in the Digital Age) discusses online self-presentation, and the Results (Self-relatedness) discusses choices about social-media use. Neither addresses private accounts, separate private and public accounts, or whether either practice is becoming more common; searches for those terms found no supporting passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [32]Steinbach A Kopp J Steinbach A Generation Grundbegriffe der Soziologie 2018 Wiesbaden Springer Fachmedien 129 131

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Mayer, G., Alvarez, S., Gronewold, N., & Schultz, J.-H.
Affiliations
  • University Hospital Heidelberg (DE)
  • Texas A&M University – Central Texas (US)
Corresponding author
Mayer, Gwendolyn
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Published
2020-11-04
Volume
22
Issue
11
Pages
e20528
ISSN
1438-8871 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2196/20528
PMC
PMC7673976
OpenAlex
W3097276661
Cited by
19
References
55
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2020: 1
FWCI
2.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Journal of Medical Internet Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (FKZ 13GW0157B)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Digital Media and Philosophy
Keywords
individualism, social media use, internet use, self-tracking, self-presentation, generational differences, baby boomers, Generation X, digital natives, social comparison, mental health, emotional distress, dataveillance, self-relatedness, coping strategies
MeSH terms
Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Focus Groups, Internet, Qualitative Research, Young Adult, Social Media

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review