‘It’s Complicated’: The Construction of Indian Middle-class Teens in Social Media

Abstract

After more than two decades as social media became regularized, domesticated and incorporated into our everyday life, we need to understand, both, how social media is shaped by and is shaping the practices humans use in interaction with, around and through it. With the advent of social media, everybody is affected, in one way or the other, by very ubiquity of new online expertise; children and young adults are usually among the first and keenest and passionate users of information and communication technologies. However, teens’ voices are rarely acknowledged and considered effective in shaping the public discourse. This article claims that the new social media opens up the possibility for the young (13–17-year olds), of being part of the global world and at the same time being true to their roots and middle-class moralities. This article emphasizes that social networking sites act as a democratizing element which balances the power somewhat in favour of teens and helps them negotiate between being world class citizens and the torch bearers of Indian middle-class morality. This article explores their sense making of these often contradictory, yet connected, intersecting/overlapping, yet distinct, worlds.

Keywords

social media Indian middle class teenage self-identity distributed self

Social Media Has Good and Bad Effects on Kids: Experts–Sites like Facebook build communities, but bullying, ‘sexting’ can occur too, pediatrics group says

—US News (Gordon, 28 March 2011)

Social media pics affect teen behaviour

—Times of India (3 September 2013)

Indian youths spend 2 hours daily on social networking sites

—The Hindu (21 July 2010)

Facebook may cause psychological disorders: Study

—One India (9 August 2011)

Kanpur: Youngster arrested for blackmailing girls on social media

—Press Trust of India @ibnlive (3 April 2015)

First tech de-addiction clinic opens; experts see ‘tip of iceberg’

—Technology: Journalism of Courage (1 June 2014)

All these headings in various news, point to the ‘effects’ of social media on teens and youth and the tone of these reportage designate the ‘danger’ implied in Social Networking Sites (hereafter SNSs). The Internet browsing on ‘teens and SNSs’ will produce a list of articles, of which 90–95% will concentrate on ‘negative impact/effects of SNSs (Krakowsky, 2014, p. 25; Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010; Mcafee report, 2014; Neelamalar, 2012; Ofcom report, 2011; O’Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011).

Introduction

Social Networking Sites’ (SNSs) instantaneous rise and its mesmerizing implications for self-presentation have set off an expected mushroom-burst of academic writings. However, as Pooley (2014) observes, the issue is the lens through which scholars are making sense of the new social media landscape. Most of the SNSs and identity work bears the intellectual and methodological stamp of psychology and assume pre social subjectivity and are thus ahistorical. They remain at the psychological trait level-ignoring social inequalities. Therefore, Pooley looks at media sociology as a corrective. The scholars writing in this league, though few in number, see self as irreducibly social. The identities performed on social media, they argue, are bound up in a mixed of interrelated shifts associated with modernity-market relations, urbanization, consumer culture and the rise of mass produced imagery (Boyd, & Ellison, 2007; Davis, 2012; Farquhar, 2012; Grasmuck, Martin, & Zhao, 2009; Marwick, & Boyd, 2011).

At the theoretical level, absence of sociology in media effect studies, consequently results in absence of questions about power. Further, in today’s global expansion of portable digital media age, media are not simply what people consume but they are interwoven in social life, making mediation integral to everyday life (Waisbord, 2014). Media effects and textual analysis informed by psychoanalytical, anthropological and literary theories are not sufficiently concerned with sociological dimensions such as power relations, stratification and collective agency. Thus, located within the broader field of media sociology, the present research hopes to fill this gap.

This article attempts to look at new social media beyond ‘media effect’ model and to see how children in the age group of 13––17 are confronted with SNSs, shaped by them, and how they in turn play an agentic role on the SNSs—to see that the picture is probably not as gruesome and unpleasant as it appears to be. This article claims that the new social media opens up the possibility for the young (13–17-year olds), to be part of the global world at the same time being true to their roots and middle-class moralities. Therefore, this article tries to see how, as Robinson (2014) states, in the ongoing globalization, teens might get a grasp over the modern, global world and make themselves at home in a capitalist modernity, while mapping their struggle to produce a modern personhood. Studies of new media and its consumption often argue, that there are very few genuine relationships and communication and increasingly we will live in a ‘postsocial’ (Ritzer, 2005) world. However, with changing technologies and liberalization processes, one needs to explore the modes of conveying authenticity of emotions and identities in new social media representations. I propose that SNSs act as that democratising element which balances the power somewhat in favour of teens and helps them negotiate between being world class citizens and the torch bearers of Indian middle-class morality. It is significant to explore their sense making of these often contradictory yet connected, intersecting, overlapping yet distinct worlds. The new social media is used here in terms of the social networking sites (Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Snapchat), mobile apps like WhatsApp, Hike, Viber, Whatpad to name a few.

Why Teens?

With the advent of social media, everybody is affected, in one way or the other, however, by very ubiquity of new online expertise, children and young adults are usually among the first and keenest and passionate users of information and communication technologies (Ofcom, 2007 as quoted in Livingston, 2009; Ofcom, 2011). As Corsoro (1997) observes that through their daily actions, often imperceptible to adult eyes, children create their social worlds as real places where real meanings (rather than fantasy or imitation) are produced and thus they contribute to social structures which are significant to both children and adults. Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92 per cent of teens report going online daily including 24 per cent who say they go online “almost constantly”, according to a new study from Pew Research Centre, 2015. As ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001) who were born and raised in the age of computers and online communication, today’s teens share self-created content, post their opinions, and link to other content online more than any other demographic group (Lenhart et al., 2010 as quoted in Herring & Kapidzic, 2015). As per Statista report, 2016, in North America, young adults and teenagers aged 16-24, spend the most time online via mobile, more than any other age group. Teenagers are spending nearly 200 minutes per day on a mobile device and social media. In India and other Asian countries, statistics show similar trends. As per July 2014 statistics, 106 million active social media users were recorded in India. Majority of these users are teenagers (Kemp, 2014).¹ Technological developments are followed by societal adjustments and assimilations of the use of the technology in day to day life. The meanings attached at an emotional level to specific technologies evolve and follow the developments themselves. The speed at which these technologies develop is also increasing. Teens are the first set of people in a society who ‘own’ this technological space, and we will explore how teens playfully experiment with it, take the emotional risks and even create and invent the new modes of usage of the technology as active agents. However, as Danah Boyd (2014) recognizes, teens’ voices rarely shaped the public discourse surrounding their networked lives. The proposed work therefore concentrates on Indian teens as the most affected and engaged age group with social media.

Literature Review

Many studies have established the extent to which the social media has emerged and established themselves as a major mode of communication. Some studies specifically have focused on the negative side- how social networking sites, such as Facebook, are putting attention span in jeopardy (Wintour, 2009) and express caution that when used in moderation, with checks and balances on how younger people are using them, SNSs have great impact on the Indian youth in spite of many challenges. However, other works also highlight how online socialization through networks like Facebook are more beneficial to the development of adolescents than the extent to which they are harmful or dangerous (Tynes, 2007). Ahn’s research focuses on both negative and positive aspects and offers a review of emerging concerns surrounding youth and social media (Ahn, 2011).

In the Indian context, a set of studies focus on the experiences of Indian teenagers with social networking sites (Lakshmi, Krishnatraya, & Srivatava, 2014), and how privacy concerns and trust influence social interactions within social networking sites (Dwyer, Hiltz, & Passerini, 2007). Studies also centre on how online social networking profiles posted by adolescents include intimate, open, and observable self-disclosure and peer interaction that help us understand adolescent behaviour (Lenhart & Madden, 2007) and how young people incorporate media content into their peer interactions and appropriate a variety of communication platforms to socialize with their peers (Lim, 2013). Boyd studied how and why social media has become central to the lives of so many American teens, how they navigate the networked publics that are created through those technologies and provide critical insight into the networked lives of contemporary youth (Boyd, 2014). Herring and Kapidzic (2015) consider the implications of social media use, profile construction, visual and textual self-presentation, profile visibility, truthfulness, and other facets of teens’ self-presentation in relation to their gender.

There is a growing body of work on redefining family structures due to SNSs. Ferrari, Klinzing, Paris, Morris, and Eyman (1985) noted that there is role reversal in families i.e. child as teacher and parent as pupil with teens’ comfort level with new technologies and they explore whether digital modes of communication are generating new intimacies and new meanings of ‘friendship’ as features of a networked society (Chambers, 2013); Sun Sun Lim captures the domestication of mobile communication technologies by families in Asia, and its implications for family interactions and relationships. It showcases research on families across a spectrum of socio-economic profiles (Lim, 2016).

The following section locates teen in the emerging new urban middle class to understand the dynamics of their negotiations.

Locating Teens in the New Middle Class in Contemporary India

In the last two decades or so there is an extensive body of academic writings which establishes the formation of middle classes in the post liberalization period tracing its roots in the colonial middle classes, their consumption patterns and their encounters with modernity (Appadurai, 1997; Baviskar & Ray, 2011; Breckenridge, 1996; Brosius, 2010; Fernandes, 2007; Gupta, 2000; Jefferlot & Van deer veer, 2008; Saavala, 2010; Varma, 2007). As Donner (2011) claims, over the last ten years or so renewed media as well as official and academic interest in the growing Indian middle classes has changed the way in which middle-class identities and relations are being discussed. These writings on middle classes are mainly concerned with the role the middle-class Indians play as consumerist. Consumerism has thereby become the trope through which all other relationships, including those of the middle class with the state, with the poor, with globalization and with its own past are discussed and understood. However, borrowing from Donner (2011) I would like to underline that the consumption of commodities is not the sole interpretative and experiential framework of India’s middle-class subjects. There are various arguments as far as the conceptualization of this new middle classes is concerned. It is interesting to see how Bourdieu (1984) explains that class identities are constructed through everyday practices and sub cultures and how this process reproduces inequality. Bourdieu further explains that class status doesn’t depend so much on economic aspects per se but rather on the accumulation of social and cultural capital. As far as the middle class is concerned, Bourdieu’s work emphasizes on the cultural aspects and their importance as a set of differentiated ‘tastes’ and socialization and the various types of capital accessible to the middle classes. In this connection Saavala (2010) explains how Indian new middle class define their ambiguous position ‘in between’ by creating a feeling of moral value in their everyday realities. According to Saavala, they define themselves as middle class or not, on the basis of their capacity to follow assured prized practices. What is characteristically middle class, is the prerogatives of high moral value common with the monetary means to exercise morally high standards. By morality Saavala refers to norms, values and dispositions as well as conceptions of the good and desirable. According to her, unlike Western society, in India, the most fundamental indigenous moral principle is the concept of dharma which maintains that to each is assigned her/his morally righteous virtuous conduct and duty according to her/his social position and birth—which consequently explains the unequal reality of the privileged and the underprivileged. Locating middle class in the realm of economy and culture, Saavala maintains that in India, class struggle among people identifying themselves as middle class is more about belonging and acceptance than about marking difference.

Middle class as a category is not monolithic in India. However, the dominant construct of middle class for creating imagery of ‘modern India’ in the outside world has remained this urban, upper caste, educated, techno savvy IT professional arrived middle class. In India one sees a very close alliance between middle class/upper middle class and thus caste and class are yoked together. Though the material pursuits did not form a major part of the dream of its achievement and were not aggressively sought out in the past, many members of this arrived middle classes in the post 1990s, perceive the malls, business districts and multiplexes as signs of economic growth, confidence and potential membership of the ‘world class’ (Fernandes, 2007). According to Pavan Varma (2007), the Indian middle class, driven by self-interest, is becoming progressively oblivious to the quandary of the underprivileged, and economic liberalization has only intensified its tendency to withdraw from anything that does not relate directly to its material well-being. This class seems to have succumbed to what Rajni Kothari has termed a ‘growing amnesia’ (1993) towards poverty. It is within this middle class and within this framework that this article locates the teens (age group 13–17) and attempts to explore their public expression on social media to see how they oscillate between the two contradictory yet interlinked worlds, namely, being world class citizen and being true to Indianness.

Methodology

The present study mainly uses qualitative research strategies since qualitative approaches tend to be more sensitive to the complexity of social experience and thus can go beyond simple cause and effect explanations. Qualitative approaches are more suitable to generate findings to understand the nuanced and layered social reality. This study uses detailed unstructured interviews and focus group discussion with girls and boys between the age group of 13–17 as primary research tools. In some cases, where girls and boys were inaccessible, questionnaires were used to procure information. The current research extensively uses secondary sources which are duly acknowledged. As a part of qualitative research, the researcher has closely followed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Google+ and other profiles of the interviewees and their followers for six months and the activities on these profiles are recorded for analysis. Respondents were told to record the average time spent on social media in a day and in a week.

In order to ensure anonymity of these teens, pseudonyms are used.

Profile of the Interviewees

All of the respondent teens belong to the new middle class in Pune² with either no or one sibling. As mentioned in the previous section, all respondents come from an upper caste background since we see a close nexus between caste and class structures and how they are yoked together in India. Financially they come from affluent families with highly educated parents who believe in conscientious parenting with a lot of emphasis on children’s education as key to success, exposure to outside world as the precondition of today’s globalized world/global citizenship, with smart phones-a perfect ‘Yo! Gen’ leading the nation to the glorious imagery. All of the respondents are in their teens and are school-going. Their lives are more or less characterized by common factors like having less autonomy over life, lack of financial independence, lack of easy mobility to go to café and other places to ‘hangout’. Their life is primarily restricted to school, coaching classes, home and outing with family and rarely with few selected friends. This reality of their lives definitely makes SNSs and Internet as the major gateway to outside world where one can exercise considerable autonomy and freedom though in limited manner. SNSs are the major sites through which communication with peers other than school timings can be carried out. Daily they spend significant time online and generally access SNSs through smartphones.

Findings and Discussion

All over the globe, teenhood is defined as the period when child enters into adulthood—usually teen age indicates the age group between 12 and 18. However, the defining age group fluctuates greatly across cultures and even within cultures and thus teen age is a socio-cultural construction. Teenhood is a transitory phase where teens are often given conflicting messages with conflicting behaviour expectations. On one hand, they are expected to be ‘no more kids’ and behave with a sense of responsibility and on the other ‘not yet adult’ and not act independently without supervision—often confusing the teens. However, over last decade, entry into teenhood is celebrated in a prodigious manner. Thirteenth birthday celebration has assumed a lot of space in Indian middle-class families. It has become an event to be celebrated to declare the child’s entry into teenage—an event borrowed by Indian middle class from the West as a part of their larger mission of projecting themselves as world class citizens. This was supported by various marketed forms like the gift article industry, wall posters and TV serials—all contributing to this celebration. Many messages on walls posters are like ‘My room My rules’ or ‘My Attitude—take me or leave me’ or teens tees with messages like ‘Awesome is me’ ‘Don’t try to define me’ and coffee mugs messages saying ‘Don’t bother me, I am having a crisis’—all are in a way rationalizing and naturalizing the identity crisis and confusions in teens.³

The identity of teenagers in Indian context is destined by two important processes; of conforming to norms of the middle-class families as well as rebelling against the normative. Teens do question the ideas of older generation but as Wessel (2011) states this does not mean that young people construct their own cultural universe as separate from that of elders and thus the cultural realms of youth and adults are not compartmentalized. Teens constantly negotiate with the existing reality to earn the space to do things of their own mind and at the same time conforming themselves to the strict moral code of this new middle-class families which are based on authority and obedience. Therefore, it is interesting to see how the ‘private/public boundaries are challenged/reaffirmed/strengthened via redefining the relationships in the ‘private’ realm of Indian middle-class families. To what extent the teens challenge the authority-based structures in Indian context and which are the territories that remain unchanged/unchallenged will be an interesting exploration.

Constructing Teen Identity in the New World

The New Family

As T. Robinson (2014) claims, in India, the cultural dominant is holism, socio centrism. The scholarly writings locating teens and social media in the Western context claim that today’s technologically mediated personal relationships give rise to a new, mediated intimacy which incorporates friendship and family and reflects the fluid, diverse and informal nature of contemporary personal interactions by redefining/challenging the structures of family and friendship (Chambers, 2013). Lim and Tan (2004) focused extensively on the influence of ICTs on family closeness and cohesion. Specifically, computer technology and the Internet have been seen to have both positive and negative influences on family togetherness and interaction.

In an Indian family setting, teens and parents who are intensely extroverted and who frequently share on SNSs has had a seemingly democratising influence on the communication within families both online and offline. As Giddens (1995) says, ‘disclosure’ as integral part of relations now opens up the possibility of relations based on equality and choice. Thus, democratizing of relations becomes possible within Indian middle-class families too. Topics such as homosexuality, overtly sexual item songs, scanty clothes, friends’ girlfriend or boyfriends are no more taboo in the Indian middle-class drawing rooms while watching TV as reported by majority of participants.

Indian middle class has projected itself as self-proclaimed rational, scientific class and protecting the moral propriety simultaneously which they inherit from their predecessors in colonial period. So what Parul describes in her interview is very revealing in this context. She says,

My parents are open to talks about sex to some extent and I can comfortably share sex education sessions attended in school with them. But they won’t like me to talk about my boyfriend and physical closeness with him. I dare not talk all these things with them.

Her parents would not hesitate to discuss sex education as necessary and rational and ‘scientific’ topic with her but would not be comfortable to discuss her boyfriend or ‘sex as pleasure’. One clearly sees maintaining the binaries of rational versus emotional, scientific versus unscientific (read here pleasure seeking) as base of self-proclaimed rational, scientific middle class against the erotic traditions. One respondent claims,

Many times I reveal some details to my parents thinking that they are friendly but it is only a pretence—they surely use it in some other instance and it backfires on me. They are friends and parents selectively.

This selective democratization of the drawing room conversation cannot be seen as disconnected from the economic and socio-cultural scenario in India. As aspiring global citizens, parents see themselves as modern, cool and conscientious parents. Creating WhatsApp groups for sharing within family, being ‘friends’ with children on Facebook or Snapchat, commenting on their children’s friend’s selfie on Instagram almost guarantees them membership to the global citizenship in addition to your economic profile—or rather becomes dominant cultural construct over economic. As Leela Fernandes (2007) says new urban middle classes in India are the central agents in this re-visioning of Indian nation. In the post-1990s period, a majority of the nation seemed to belong to the globalized middle-class elite, making it almost a requisite to be on SNSs and sharing these topics which were considered as taboo earlier. By selectively choosing to share and not to share, Indian middle-class families claim both the global modern world class citizenship and cultural citizenship and moral propriety simultaneously. While Indian middle-class families establish themselves firmly as the part of world class citizenship, they are selectively distinct from their Western counterparts. As Rachel Dwyer (2002) comments they are not liberal, secularists as the term middle class suggests in a Western context where there has been a bourgeois culture of rationality and secularism. In fact, Indian middle class is supportive of Hindu ideology and espouse many non-modern values such as caste observance, pay respect to feudal values like honour and status, authority, obedience (added), often challenging the claims of law, individual rights and merit. When asked about the strict rules within the family, Ritika expressed,

Being middle class is advantageous. Middle class values are more important—what kind of things you talk in front of your parents that matters a lot. Our families teach us to do ‘everything’ in limits. Limit is necessary.

On asking further about what does she mean by ‘our’ families, Ritika contrasted her situation with ‘elite’ teens who in her words are ‘free and can talk about sex freely and go out to late night parties’. She further says,

I won’t talk about sex and virginity openly in front of my parents. My values won’t allow me to do that. All the time we have this ghost called society in our mind—which won’t allow us to act the way we want.

As Wessel (2011) points out the young adults in middle-class families in Baroda in fact would like to give shape to their lives by making choices based on reason and as individuals rather than as member of a collective. We see this sense of autonomy and independence as related to life choices even as early as in teenagers. Shreya says,

If they force me to do something just because they say so, I want to rebel—I know they are wrong but we are taught to obey—but honestly, respect and obedience are different

They seem to experience a cultural distance from that of previous generation and challenge regular routine life. Through SNSs, they are connected to the global world.

I love 1D-I was sooo happy when Harry Styles broke up with his girlfriend-hehe.

All my friends—we just died!—for days when Zain Malik spilt from 1D!’

‘I just wish I could just hangout at Pier 39 Hard Rock Café-it’s just so rocks!!!

I just hate the Kardashians-why do I want to know how Kim maintains her waist size?

Vada paav with friends at school canteen is so much fun but you know, why can’t we dream of hot dog on New York street or Chicago Pizza?’

These comments clearly establish that these teens are very close to the global cultural codes and conventions. They often challenge local cultural conventions and the authority of elders. However, as Wessel puts it they do not do away with what they challenge and construct their own cultural universe as separate from that of elders. Within their arguments, they incorporate and negotiate elements of ‘traditional’ morality which they acknowledge as legitimate even as they attack them.

One of the major way in which these negotiations are played out on the site of social media is through putting lot of personal information or emotional display for the consumption for wider audiences. If emotions have social dimensions/are engendered through social and cultural processes and codes and if our emotional responses become a way of dealing with the world (Nayar, 2011), then one must look at the public display of emotions on the social networking sites and to map the ways in which teens cope up with the binaries implied in modernity, namely individual versus collective interest, public versus domestic life, openness to world versus rootedness—and enchanting a disenchanted world and how the transition and the redefining of these emotions in new social contexts ensue on the site of SNSs. Shreya further says,

Most of my friends and myself, we use SNSs (especially the one where our parents and relatives are not our friends) to rebel against this parental authority and to express our disapproval about things imposed on us—venting it out helps—we regularly do this—so that we can get back to our family routine

The following sections look at how teens situated in these new Indian families deal with temporariness, uncertainties, self-projection and emotion management and how SNSs as democratising element balances the power in favour of teens and helps them negotiate between two worlds.

‘Nothing is Permanent’: Dealing with Temporariness

Social media has substantially altered the way teens interact with each other. There is a substantial body of writings expressing fear of losing on face to face interactions and therefore authenticity of interactions. Long-term face-to-face interactions are seen as passé and generate a fear and a pessimistic response in the writings of Bauman (2001), Beck and Beck (1995) and Putnam (2000). They expressed anxieties about social bonds being loosened, ephemeral and lacking in commitment. These scholars point to the rise of a self-centred, individualistic narcissism and societal isolation at the individual level and a lack of social accountability, social cohesion and breakdown of community at the societal level leading to a destabilization of traditional social relations including a decline in the importance of duty and obligation in family relations. Looser and more transient social ties are now acknowledged as equally significant in the personal lives of individuals.

The SNSs have also generated the sense of ‘temporariness’ in all interactions and particularly of intimate relationships. This temporariness of relationships as understood through SNSs is also translated into a binary between love relationship and marriage and these are seen as mutually exclusive. Most of the participants were not comfortable to add their ‘relationship’ status on their Facebook profiles. Shreya says,

Almost 90–95% times we are sure that these relationships may not work because changing bf/gf (boyfriend/girlfriend) is considered ok among friends. So I don’t like to add my relationship status because I am scared of my parents knowing this through some cousin or relative who is on my friends’ list.

Tags says,

It reduces the chances of other girls thinking of you as probable boyfriend if I add my relationship status. And if my existing relationship breaks then I have to keep other chances open—and anyway no relationships are going to last beyond 2/3 months then why to create fuss over it?

According to respondents, online relationships are not permanent so they prefer not to expose these and create concern over them with the immediate family. Very few think it alright to put relationship status knowing the temporariness of these relationships. One of them said,

Once I am married I will put my status as ‘married’ because then there is not going to be any change.

This comment has very interesting connotations for understanding the way relationships and marriages are segregated by teens. Love before marriage is viewed as a temporary phenomenon. Naomi feels that it is her conscious decision not to go on Facebook because there is lot of drama happening on it. She prefers other ‘non-nonsensical’, ‘serious’ SNSs options like Google+. She and most of her friends feel that the relationships before marriage should not necessarily end in marriage. Most of them are of the firm opinion that marriages are permanent, long lasting and, therefore, should be fixed by parents and family in general. In this connection Parul and Urmi voice the representative opinion by saying,

When it comes to marriage I trust my parents—they have seen me since I am a baby so they won’t go wrong. Even if I like someone and if they feel that this guy is not good for me, I will try to convince them to a certain limit but end of the day I will go with my parents

Tags explains,

As far as marriage is concerned, that is squarely a choice to be made as per the parent’s choice and acceptance. As they know what is best for me.

Parental consent is at the centre for all the participants. When it comes to marriage no option for trial and error is thought possible. On the contrary the pre-marital relationships are understood as temporary and characterized by trial and error and therefore can be chosen and worked out by themselves. These are, therefore, discussed and shared more openly and confidently with friends, the inherent feeling that friends can understand the temporariness of these relationships without attaching stigma. Parul makes it clear and says,

Parents and friends are different—I would like to maintain that difference

This reaffirms the consequent binary of family and friend. As mentioned by Livingston (2009) in UK or Danah Boyd (2007) and Chambers (2013) in USA, we do not see the obfuscating of boundaries between friends and family when it comes to life changing decisions/life choices. One sees the temporariness of relationships as also in sync with the fragmented lives and identities lived online and offline by Indian middle-class teens.

‘Being Cool’—Dealing with Uncertainties

Being ‘cool’ seems to be a ubiquitous desirable emotional state among the contemporary teens. Nayar (2013) quoting Stearns explains ‘cool’ is a style of emotional restraint that arose in the middle-class youth and he links it with the shift away from a Victorian emotionalism and the simultaneous rapid expansion of consumer culture. As Nayar explains ‘cool’ was also associated with African American grunge dress, the strut, music and body posture. These were modes of expression that went along with seeming lack of care, excessive behaviour along with feigned emotional indifference which was a response to racist unjust, oppressive system where the blacks learnt to supress the anger in order to survive. Being cool then is associated with feigning emotional indifference, suppressing natural negative emotions in response to a stressful, unbearable day to day life.

In the case of Indian middle-class teens, the fractured reality, the multiple contradictory self-images and serious uncertainties in economic, social lives around them cause a highly stressful perception of day-to-day existence. Lukose (2010) calls this generation ‘zippies’; liberalization’s children who display attitude, ambition and aspiration, yet very cool, confident and creative. According to her, these teens and young adults are dealing with disconcerted times; who admire capitalism, grew up in the era of food surpluses, techno savvy and guiltless consumers, who grew up with shaky coalition governments. The middle-class anxieties due to the stress of the unknown in online relations, political uncertainty, middle-class moral codes and global freedom, individuality and managing Indian family values of obedience and parental authority, public and private and enchanting the disenchanted world, all necessitate a feigned, ‘don’t care a damn-cool’ attitude. Comments on SNSs are quite illuminating:

We swallowed the chaos because we knew we didn’t want to be ordinary’

Learning through the downs, living for the ups

My hand fits perfectly in my other hand…. I think I was made for myself’—teenage quotes on Instagram

If you are lucky enough to be different from everyone else, don’t change.

Ritika says,

Sex is the most overrated thing—but talking about it is natural—its cool.

She instantly adds,

But I won’t talk about virginity on Facebook or Instagram because me and my friends feel that we have to talk about it only after marriage. To lose virginity is not at all cool……

These are some of the quotes and comments from the walls of Instagram and Facebook profiles which I followed for almost six months which indicate the projection of ‘cool’ self with the philosophical overtone. Philosophising in the face of the ambiguous, chaotic reality is considered cool and ‘grounded’ at the same time. While copying Western teen language as part of the global citizen project might explain the familiarity with Western ‘cool’, the emotional resonance in the Indian middle-class teens gives very much a unique definition to their own version of ‘cool’.

‘The New Romance’ in the Shadow of Mistrust and Surveillance

As Illouz (2007) claims, Internet marks a radical departure from the traditional romantic love and gives rise to disembodied textual interaction. Further Internet technology increases the instrumentalization of romantic interactions by placing a premium on the value people attribute to themselves and to others in a structured market. The idea of romantic love has often been accompanied by the idea of the uniqueness of the person loved. Exclusivity is essential to the economy of the scarcity that has presided over romantic passion. On the other hand, Internet has the spirit of abundance and interchangeability and encounters the principal of mass consumption based on an economy of copiousness, boundless choice, competence, rationalization, discriminatory targeting and standardization. She claims that we see a clear shift in the romantic sensibility. Consumer capitalism exacerbated key experiences of romance. Romantic relationships are structured within the market and also have become commodities themselves, produced on an assembly line which can be consumed fast, efficiently, cheaply and in great abundance (Illouz, 2007). The result is that the terminology of emotions is now more absolutely dictated by the market. As Ria comments,

I don’t dream. It’s a waste of time. Our generation is more rational and practical you know! Older generations had much more peaceful life. But internet has made our lives hell—we can’t afford to be naïve and emotional.

With the advent of disembodied textual interactions, especially on SNSs, I feel that romance has been redefined rather than exacerbated. Now with SNSs and Internet, romance is no more provoked by the presence of two physical material bodies only. As a part of the negotiations of ‘being in this world’ one needs to see the implications of it for the romantic relationships.

Goffman (1959) suggests that in a situation of physical co-presence there arises a sense that people are close enough to be perceived in whatever they are doing. This means that interaction is an elusive process of adjusting what we say or how we behave to the perceived co-presence of another. From this co-presence arises a special kind of mutuality. Goffman is referring here to a form of practical knowledge of sociability which is incompatible with cognitive knowledge. According to Goffman, the Internet interrupts the kind of semi-conscious adjustments we make in actual, real interactions precisely in giving primacy to cognitive, text-based knowledge.

To delve a little deeper in the mode of online communication vis-à-vis co-presence, one observes that body language, what one wears, tone of voice and much richer non-textual communication that happens in co-presence is significantly different than online textual communication. A significant part of non-verbal communication is communicated unconsciously, and in real time where the ability to control what is communicated is limited. In contrast, almost all of what is communicated on SNSs can be controlled consciously by the author and typically there is enough time to think and put on a façade while online. This imbalance in the power causes a heightened sense of mistrust and surveillance especially in high emotionally risky intimate relationships, in the form of scrutiny of historical conversations between romantic partners and with others, tracking online status, checking phone logs and so on. In an intimate online relationship scenario, the mediated communication then results in a continuous background of mistrust and heightened emotional stress. We will shortly discuss how this is evident from Nikita’s comments about her purely online romantic relationship. In contrast to what Goffman suggests though, there is no radical break or fracture in mode of acquiring practical knowledge of sociability that Goffman talks about due to an SNSs-based mediated communication. From physical presence to telephone or email-based communication, social norms and codes evolved which extended the practical knowledge of sociability to accommodate the new mode of communication. The SNSs and their use have also evolved over time and have further extended and developed norms of how to read specific type of communication over SNSs especially in intimate relationships. Aria explains,

These girls do so much drama on Facebook na, some girls really go overboard just to grab attention of boys. When I met Nikita in the evening, she was all cool but Facebook post said she had a painful breakup in the morning! So much drama only for Facebook likes!

The ‘drama’ that a teenage girl may demonstrate on Facebook and how it is read by her friends has evolved and understood as common shared knowledge that ‘this is only for Facebook’. While few modes are specific to SNSs, there are obvious implications of the online behaviour on an intimate relationship offline too.

According to Andrejevic (2005), the intensiﬁcation of a social media culture has enabled strangers, acquaintances, friends, family and even romantic partners to monitor one another. Tokunaga (2011, as quoted in Lukacsa & Quan-Haase, 2015) stresses that interpersonal electronic surveillance (IES) is used over communication technologies to attain awareness of another user’s ofﬂine and/or online behaviours’ (Tokunaga, 2011). Andrejevic (2005) has reported a recent collective shift toward lateral surveillance, which he identiﬁed as ‘peer-to-peer monitoring. The use of surveillance tools is not only by agents of institutions public or private, but by individuals to keep watch on each another. Surveillance also occurs between romantic partners; constant monitoring of a partner, which may have been considered excessive in the past, is now becoming normalized (Andrejevic, 2005; Gershon, 2010; Muise, Christoﬁdes, & Desmarais, 2009; Tokunaga, 2011, as quoted in Lukacsa & Quan-Haase, 2015). The evolving practical knowledge of sociability encompassing SNSs are also incorporating this surveillance between partners as a natural expected behaviour.

As most of the participants reported, the issue of trust becomes important in this connection. The absence of a real body and physical presence generates a kind of suspicion about the very identity and existence of the real person with whom one is interacting. Many teens responded that losing the emotional net makes the ground of love jittery. Trust is replaced by suspicion in relationship and thus making it temporary rather than long-lasting. TV programmes like Emotional Ataychar and Gumrah⁴ feed into this and reinforce the unfeasibility of trust in relationships, thus naturalizing the suspicion and making it a norm. Ria says,

Internet has made our lives hell. Parul told me about Gumrah—it really opened my eyes—so many things can go wrong on Facebook or Instagram—the wrong kind of person contacting you is always a possibility! You don’t even know if he is a 50 year old fellow.

The mistrust between romantic partners thus is getting naturalized when relationships are primarily or majorly played out on SNSs. Nikita’s comments about the trauma about one of her purely online romantic relationship, which lasted many months, are very revealing. In a relationship with a guy in another city, which never culminated in a meeting in person, at a point of time her online boyfriend developed an incurable ailment. After a few months, after a long traumatic battle, he passed away. The grief of losing a loved one haunts Nikita, but the small nagging doubt at the back of her mind, was this person even real? makes the situation all the more tragic. The contamination of the grief of losing a loved one with this mistrust is a phenomenon which can only happen in such an SNSs-based relationship. In an almost Nietzschean way, that emotional net of basic trust of intimate involvement with a ‘real’ person in face-to-face relationships is under question in SNSs-based relationships.

Projection of Self

Distributed Selves/Distributed Lives

Undoubtedly the trends and patterns of SNSs usage has affected the way Indian teens interact with the world. The ‘self’ or the identity of the teens is constructed through SNSs profiles and avtaars all over the globe and Indian teens are no exception to it. The modes of sharing their emotions and building impressions are quite similar to their global counterparts. According to Warren Susman (Illouz, 2007), the inception of the twentieth century witnessed the way in which the self is negotiated and presented. For the first time ‘self’ became something to be brought together and manipulated for the sake of impression making and impression management and in his view consumer culture and fashion industry played an important role in accentuating this. In today’s time, SNSs have played major role in creating self/self-identity. We clearly see a shift from less fragmented and less given to a context-dependent manipulation to more fragmented and more calculative, manageable self. This actually fits into Gidden’s (1995) conception of self-identity which is being shaped by life politics where globalizing influences interrupt deeply the reflexive idea of selfhood. Life politics are the politics of self-actualization of emancipated individuals acting with a certain level of autonomy.

However, the self-identity of teens in Indian middle-class families is characterized by specialness and facelessness simultaneously. As Nita Kumar (2011) says they are like everybody else is, simultaneously, a tragedy as well as the triumph. There is a constant pressure to be middle class as against the elite or working class. Indian middle-class parents create their distinctiveness not only in relation to their Western counterparts but also in relation to the class above and below them within the same social structure. Ria says,

My parents give me too much tension—study hard or you will be work as a domestic maid in somebody else’s house! We are Middle class people—good education is only thing that help us progress in our lives—it’s just too much!

While Nikita adds,

I tell Mom to chill but she keeps hammering—‘do you think you come from elite family? Those girls can do what they like and have as many boyfriends and do whatever, but we have to keep our values and limits in mind, little bit talk with boys on Facebook is ok”. Urghhh… She doesn’t get it! I am also conscious of who we are—the elite girls can even lose their virginity and all but we are not like that. Boyfriends and dates is ok, and we talk all the sexy exciting stuff on SNSs—but actually sex!!…no re baba—that’s what is marriage for na!

According to Nita Kumar (2011) the discourse of the self-sacrificing mother and the dutiful progeny is par excellence a middle class and not an upper or lower class discourse. Indian parents oscillate between the need to believe in new modern technologies and being moral torch bearers of the middle class. They feel compelled to use SNSs, broach new topics for drawing room conversations but while seeing through this ‘vulgarisation’ of Indian culture are constantly negotiating within traditional values.

The burden to construct a coherent unified knowledge of the social world which is made up of diverging and progressively incoherent logics (Mc Donald, 1999) leads to more and more fragmented identities for Indian middle-class teens. On one hand while the society construes identity in terms of an abundance of choice, allows its teens to use very little power to make meaningful choices, insisting on standardization of norms and roles and thus to use Erikson’s (1980) words going through ‘a painful oscillation between conformity and rebellion’.

Multiple accounts on SNSs is one way of managing this fragmented and multiple identities among teens. Many teens reported having multiple accounts on SNSs specifically for different sets of people—close buddies, generalized others, immediate family, cousins—most of which operate in a mutually exclusive fashion. Invariably parents are active users of SNSs and on the friend list of their children in Indian middle-class set-up. Content on these multiple accounts is substantially different. Parul says,

I don’t have multiple accounts on Facebook like some of my friends, but I have accounts on all different social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatpad, google plus—separate sites for separate groups of friends and relatives, so that nothing is exchanged and mixed.

Ritika says,

Many of my friends share content related to studies, general readings, ‘harmless’ forwards, songs on account shared with parents—whereas on other accounts they share whatever they like without this fear of being judged. Friends don’t judge you on the no. of affairs you have you know. They are buddies…we have to fool our parents otherwise we will be considered uncool.

The language, the frequency of posts and the kind of content is very different on ‘buddies’ accounts. The racy comments and shares, potentially controversial content which would definitely attract attention are restricted to a few groups or accounts.⁵

Indian teens, as their global counterparts, are navigating through turbulent, confused contemporary times which is dominated by market-driven construction of ‘self’. In most of the public discourses, cultivating the ‘self’, managing the ‘self’, presenting the ‘self’ has remained at the core. As Adorno (Illous, 2007) puts it disparate institutions are tightly linked together in a process of commodification of selfhood—the psychological persuasion, self-help literature, the advice industry, the state, the pharmaceutical industry and the Internet technology are all intertwined to form the substrate of modern psychological self-hood because all of them have the self as their prime target (Illouz, 2007). Today the literature by Shiv Khera, Robin Sharma become the best seller. The places which are consumed primarily by teens and young adults are displaying advertisements by ‘life coach’ and ‘image consultants’⁶ helping the young build their image. All of these concentrate on the value of ‘being smart’ or ‘in control of one’s self’ in this world.⁷ Not being naïve or idealistic is a virtue. ‘Being in the world’ is defined more in terms of ‘self’ than ‘collective’. Today’s teens are barraged with literature focusing on the ‘self’. SNSs become one of the most important sites on which this desired self is designed and played around.

They told me I could be anyone I wanted. So I became me…’

I don’t need a superhero to save me. I have myself.

These are some of the popular captions for selfies. According to the participants, selfie is the most popular and powerful aspect of this construction of ‘self’ on the SNSs. Many participants explained that lot of their self-esteem depends upon the way their selfie is appreciated in terms of comments and likes on SNSs.⁸ On Instagram the textual communication is minimal or absent. So it is the selfie mostly which projects the ‘self’ and most of the teens I interviewed chose Instagram over other forms for the very fact that, in their words, the ‘world’ should know you through your eyes and not the way they want you to be. As Nayar (2014) puts it, the selfie therefore is an important mode of telling one’s story in the way one chooses to, and should be seen as a mode of interacting with the world, of ‘putting on a face’ one wants the world to see. It is ultimately an act of agency: to determine the nature of one’s profile in the world, and to determine who sees it. It allows the individual the freedom to choose how s/he might be perceived in the online social spaces. Urmi says,

People watching my selfie should know who I am on my terms and not theirs. It’s ‘me’ who knows me the best.

Another interesting feature on Instagram called as ‘10 things about myself’ as part of profile designing is very illuminating in understanding the way today’s teens are forced to create their images in a particular fashion. The Instagram profiles which I followed during the study distinctly show the ‘practical’ approach as expected and desired and not much of idealism is appreciated. Idealism at some point in history guided by social virtues—well-being of society seems waning from the social scape. Most of the participants expressed that being practical means no one taking you for a ride—that defines ‘being cool’ in turn—not letting anybody ‘get to you’.

On Instagram, interestingly I came across many snapshots of private conversations from WhatsApp or hike being posted, publicising the private content; private fights, apologies made public, private letters expressing love, apologies for misunderstandings, all thrown open for the consumption, giving a sense of openness/flexibility. The private public boundaries which we saw getting more reaffirmed in the realm of family, become quite meaningless in the realm of identity formation with friends online. Therefore, it is very fascinating to see what cannot be thrown open for the consumption in the private realm of family is now made available to the public in the realm of peers. This blurring in fact strengthens the fact that family as a structure has not democratized as predicted by the scholars-rather the boundaries between family and friends are reaffirmed and strengthened, further affirming the private/public divide for Indian middle-class teens. The ‘self’ and the heightened emotions projected for the consumption of the peers and generalized others on the SNSs reaffirms the boundaries of both the worlds.

‘Being in Public’ and ‘Being Public’⁹

Emotional display/going public has become ubiquitous for life on SNSs for teens across globe as well as in India. Drama played out on social media almost becomes ever-present to SNSs and thus it is impossible to untangle drama from the networked publics especially teens. The drama on SNSs, though, is an elaborate exercise in managing the self-identity. The self is not viewed as bounded fixed entity. It is a reflexive construction which is constantly being renegotiated through interaction within the social world (Andersen, 1997). Goffman’s concept of dramaturgy contributes to an understanding of online interaction as a performance continually adjusted to respond to the communication. The choice of words and content of postings become a performance of identity. The purpose of a performance is to confirm the shared moral values of the community or network (Goffman, 1959).Teenage girls posting selfies incessantly on Instagram with philosophical quotes, have expressed that it’s a need to continually seek feedback and critical for their self-esteem. The comments on selfies from friends often have no mention on the philosophical quote but purely on the ‘looks’, ‘hotness’ and ‘cuteness’. The quotes seem to be an attempt to portray a sense of grandeur, and a portrayal of the selfie as a larger than life spectacle. A collection of comments given below seem to be aimed at conveying a sense of absolute control over life situations, a sense of confidence.

Be a king even if you are a lady

Walk like you rule the world

I am sad, hurt, angry, mad and disappointed- but you know what? I will put on a smile and move on but I will survive. It will hurt but I will survive!

Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile

During the interviews though most of the teens expressed a clear understanding that they lack the control of their life, and are aware of their dependence on parents. There seems to be an obsession in the teens to post messages which depict an almost unreal sense of confidence, a ‘don’t care a damn’ attitude. To understand this phenomenon, one can refer to Marar’s (2003) conception of paradox of happiness—a modern sensibility both ‘wants to break free’ and ‘wants to belong’.

It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself and to make your happiness a priority! It’s necessary!

My hand fits perfectly in my other hand. I think I was made for myself (teenage quotes—quoted by many on their walls’

The best love story is between you and yourself

Was the snow really sparkling or did I make it shine

An evolved sense of agency, authorship, being in control of events is absolutely essential for the realization of freedom rather than being regulated by them and is connected to the privatized feeling of exclusivity. According to Marar (2003) the need to feel justified today is about overcoming meaninglessness and desire for belonging and applause. It has a moral dimension and requires submission to a fitting audience (Marar, 2003).The paradox is about wanting to be free and to be justified at the same time. Wanting to be free is about turning away the sense of authorship, control that SNSs provide; whereas wanting to be justified is all about turning towards others—the audience, followers, on the SNSs.

The construction of self-identity of Indian teens is based on both, assertion of their own will, rebellion against the middle-class norms as well as belongingness/conformity to norms. The hashtags used by teens signify this need to be part of both the worlds. Hashtags used on the SNSs have evolved as an effective tool to capture the fragments of the reality. Hashtags focus the attention of the audience on specific aspects of the content which the author wishes to highlight. The specific tags used by teens on SNSs with selfies though are a very interesting exploration into what is important and emotionally resonant for the teens.

Hair#texture#loveit

redlights#reflection#my hair#loveit

Random#selfie#bored#browneyes

These hash tags clearly focus on the aspect of ‘Self’ to be highlighted as the most crucial aspect of the teen identity in a given time. Interestingly the highlights keep shifting depending upon the dominant emotion of that time and space (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat). Multiple, often contradicting identities are claimed in the hashtags with selfies by teens. The formation of teen identity is not complete just by belonging to teen community/clique but claiming your traditions and national patriotic identity becomes equally important at this age to assume legitimate position in this society. Selfies and photos with pouting lips, kissing and comments saying ‘hot’, ‘sexy’, ‘bomb’ and selfies and photos in traditional attires at the time of festivals and wedding are juxtaposed on the same wall portray the need to belong to both the worlds—claiming both worlds to themselves.

Tradition#sisreception#instafun#instalook#click#heartsign

Weddingscenes#didi#wedding#reception#pink#love#favoriteperson#indian#tradition

Weddings#indian#traditional#march#love#prettyme#pink

Traditionalsdussera#funtime#ccdtimes#toomanyselfies#loveindian

These hash tags mentioned above attempts to tie together the various fragments of identities that the teens aspire to be rooted in traditions, Indian weddings, selfie culture, pretty looks as desirable, fun times at Café Coffee Day (CCD), Instagram addict and being a proud Indian. The fragments of identities attached to a selfie also indicate the fragments of emotions these identities constitute of. Association of multiple fleeting emotions to these selfies in the form of hash tags, may probably indicate acceptance of the temporariness of sentiments by teens.

Although it appears that the primary mode of interaction on SNSs is a public display of emotions by teens, there is clear distinction between, as Danah Boyd (2014) claims, ‘being in public’ and ‘being public’. As Boyd states, teens want to gather in public environments to socialize but they do not necessarily want every vocalized expression to be publicized (Boyd, 2014). They use multiple techniques to limit access to meaning though the text is public on SNSs. Using encoded messages, short forms and so on are techniques deployed by teens to restrict access to meaning and protect privacy from the spying adult eyes. It is interesting to note the way teens obtain agential role and not just surrender themselves to SNSs as one more inevitable happening in the world they are facing day in and day out. Many of the respondents reported that they gain this agential control by either deactivating their accounts on a regular basis or disappearing from the site and later again reactivating the account and retrieving all the comments and content. Singham will hide the profile from the eyes of adults when they are online in the daytime and reactivate it later. Similarly, Urmi reported that she deletes the posts and comments from her Facebook wall every day to avoid drama it may create. Recording a similar instance, Boyd and Marwick (2011) suggest that the constant deletion turns Facebook into a more ephemeral space, subverting the persistent nature of the space (Boyd & Marwick, 2011). Another strategy which most of the teens recorded is of limiting the access to interpretations of a particular post or comments where adults won’t understand the contextual meaning of it but at face value it looks very harmless. Ariya comments,

Dad can’t handle even the lyrics of some mention of sex in some English songs so I make them ‘harmless’—I know my friends surely understand the original song and what I want to say…. What to do? We have to fool them a little.

This strategy of limiting access to meaning creates private spaces of communication within the public nature of SNSs. The deleting or deactivating or restricting access to interpretations cannot always be read as irresponsible or fraudulent behaviours but may also be a strategy of dealing with insecurities, uncertainties and surveillance. This, to use Boyd’s phrase, ‘steganography’ was always part of teen culture but now is far more ubiquitous and much more evolved and complex on SNSs due to the public nature of the medium and the higher potential of surveillance.

Conclusion

The Indian middle-class teens are constantly walking a tight rope, managing the often contradictory expectations of being global citizen and following the Indian middle-class traditional values, the temporariness of relationships, pressure of being ‘cool’, handling inherent distrust as a backdrop to relationships, and the constant negotiations with lateral and parental surveillance. The informal personal interactions on SNSs and the democratization of familial relationships that is seen in the Western context, is not evident in the same way in the Indian context. Familial communication has opened up to areas of dialogue selectively but the core middle-class values still remain non-negotiable. The dichotomy of friends and family still remain intact even though the relatively open communication on SNSs unseals the possibility of fluidity. Teens remain in a perpetual state of contradiction which is real to them—wanting to rebel against authority and to be justified; connecting globally and living locally; negotiating trust in online relationships and personal surveillance; choosing temporariness of pre-marital relationships and conforming to marriage as destiny; ‘being in the world’ in terms of ‘self’ than ‘collective’.

Pre-marital relationships mediated through SNSs remain adventurous but clearly ‘temporary’ and thus remain in the realm of friendships. On the contrary marriage being a ‘permanent’ phenomenon is mediated through the family—reaffirming the boundaries between friends and family. The basic trust in ‘real’ relationships is under question in SNSs-based relationships and partner surveillance becomes a norm. SNSs become the medium which offers a site to balance out the day-to-day contradictions. As expressed by many participants, they use SNSs to rebel against authority or obedience within families and ease out the stress by creating their own version of ‘cool’. All the participants talked about limits, moderation, boundaries, restrictions, confines or balance which symbolise the need to be operating within certain perimeter. What comes through these interviews is that SNSs are active spaces where even while socializing publicly, access to meaning is controlled through various techniques. One can establish from the participants comments that teens use SNSs actively with informed choice as a balancing ground. In this study, as we observe the Indian middle-class teens, they appear to be the natural citizens and frontline soldiers battling it out in this bold ever changing new world.

Footnotes

Notes

Note: Title is borrowed from Danah Boyd’s book Its Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.

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‘It’s Complicated’: The Construction of Indian Middle-class Teens in Social Media

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Why Teens?

Literature Review

Locating Teens in the New Middle Class in Contemporary India

Methodology

Profile of the Interviewees

Findings and Discussion

Constructing Teen Identity in the New World

The New Family

‘Nothing is Permanent’: Dealing with Temporariness

‘Being Cool’—Dealing with Uncertainties

‘The New Romance’ in the Shadow of Mistrust and Surveillance

Projection of Self

Distributed Selves/Distributed Lives

‘Being in Public’ and ‘Being Public’ 9

Conclusion

Footnotes

Notes

References

‘Being in Public’ and ‘Being Public’⁹