Teen Screenshot: forme serializzate della narrazione identitaria

Abstract

In recent years there has been a large increase in the relevance of serialized narrative in media production. These narratives have been investigated by media scholars for example in relation to serialized advertising and the fandom phenomena (Jenkins, 2007). This serialization trend does not just regard mainstream media such as broadcast fictional narratives, but also, given its pervasiveness, grassroot narratives. In this study we examined a particular type of narration: self narratives occurring in the online spaces. Especially for teenagers, online identity’s representation in personal profiles develops in a tension between the desire to show to the audience and the desire to sneak out their parents’ control (boyd, 2007). Teens represent themselves by a story that not necessarily corresponds to an objective truth (Boccia Artieri, 2012). This kind of narrative production embraced seriality as a communicative standard. And in order to exemplify what is claimed, it has been conducted an online etnographic research lasted one year, analyzing the practice of screenshots sharing: snapshot taken to show what happens on the screen or in a portion of the same. This type of fragments, produced and promoted in order to be shared by others, represents an emerging form of communication among teens. It is not exclusively linked to forms of connected intimacy, but also to content production which are made to be adapted to an audience who will use them in their own self narratives.  It becomes evident that these fragments are not exclusively made for a private self narrative, but for a kind of choral and serialized storytelling. Extrapolated from the original context screenshot can still be understood but the broader sense is given by their interrelation.