Do you know all your children's social media profiles?

Barcelona"Most people have at least two accounts on Instagram and TikTok," says 17-year-old Selma. Victoria, the same age, says she has three on Instagram and three on TikTok. No more having just one social media profile. In fact, in 2021, a UNICEF study on the impact of technology In adolescence, it already revealed that 61.5% of young people have multiple accounts or profiles on the same social network, while 83.5% have a presence on three or more platforms. But why do they want so many profiles and how do they use them?

"People usually have a public account, with all their followers, and a private one, where they only accept people they know: family and friends. Then there are people who have three: the public one, the private one, and the very private one, where they only accept people they trust a lot. Then there are those who have an account with a false identity": Mariona, 13 years old, meets five cents of the spectrum of possibilities. She has two, which she differentiates according to her privacy. It's what has been called hashtag, of fake instagram (fake account), and rinstagram, of real instagram (real account). While the rinsta It is used, paradoxically, to teach the ideal self that they feel is expected of them, the until It is used to show its more human side. "For example, I post a video of myself dancing," explains Selma: "I upload things that I would be embarrassed to share publicly. And I don't use filters." Sometimes, they also use profiles to share their hobby or the more artistic side. This is the case of Andreu, 17, who uses his public account to talk about philosophy: "They are filters that we all have to go through."

It should be noted that with the new ones teenage accountsMeta launched last year, profiles are always private and have restrictions that families must accept. However, this doesn't affect existing accounts, and it's not difficult to trick the machines with a fake age.

Teenagers want privacy

Under the eyes of adults, multiple profiles may be a misunderstood and questioned practice, but the Tools cooperative, specialists in screens and social networks in the classroom, doesn't think the same."Separating your digital identity into different sections is a practice that we consider very valid. That a young person values what they post and who their audience is means that there is a process of reflection behind where this content goes and how they can protect it," says Ester Angelats, prevention technician in the uses of TRIC and partner. public in which you let everyone in."

In this sense, this is not the only practice that has changed in recent years. Teenagers no longer make publications in the feed Instagram, but most just post stories, posts that last 24 hours. "They don't want their constant life story to be permanent, and that's also positive for us because there's less risk of someone taking a photo of you from when you were 14," Angelats continues.

But experts also disagree. Psychologist Júlia Pascual believes that having up to two well-organized profiles is a sign of normality, but that having three or more active profiles requires "vigilance" because there is a direct relationship between social media use and eating disorders (EDs) and mood disorders: "The poorer the mental health, the more hours spent on social media." In severe cases of EDs requiring psychiatric hospitalization, she has found that several patients create profiles to explain their recovery process while maintaining an account in which they advocate for anorexia. "Social media feeds the disorder's monster," warns Pascual.

Don't talk to strangers!

These secondary profiles can also be a way to alienate parents. "It would be part of the normal process of adolescent intimacy to decide what I want to show you and what I don't," says Angelats. Pascual, for his part, says that "we should not only monitor social media to see who our child is interacting with, but we should also monitor what identities they are revealing." As happens in the series Adolescence (Netflix) that has been talked about so much, "if we don't have information, we believe they are not doing it."

In the case of accounts with fake identities, they often share them with other friends. Berta, 17, has one with her friends so she can check other people's posts without worrying about missing a trick. like, he explains. They also sometimes talk to people they don't know, but "just to joke around." In this sense, Angelats believes that the messages from adults need to evolve. "They've always been told not to talk to strangers. This message is outdated. It won't tell you. It won't have the tools to identify an abusive relationship or cheating," he explains. And he rephrases the discourse: "It's best not to talk to strangers, but if you do one day, keep in mind that one groomer [Online sexual harasser] is someone who will pretend to be your age and talk about your interests. When they ask for your personal information or photos, they will do so after building a relationship of trust.

A fragmented personality

If a profile shows you doingposturingin places fortunes, In another, they record themselves expressing themselves freely, in a third, they share artistic photographs, and perhaps they even have a fourth profile with a fake name and a fifth shared with a friend. Do they really know who they are? According to Pascual, creating multiple accounts responds to the need to test: "It is the disguise of the first test of ego through their digital avatar." So far, so good because "it allows them to discover which personality they feel most comfortable with." The problem is that they do so "through external validation controlled by algorithms and the luck factor." "They build an identity without foundations that is very manipulable and influenceable. Constructing identity only from recognition can lead to many mental health problems," Pascual adds.

Xavier Bruguer, a psychologist specializing in children and young people, also finds that social media consumption complicates identity construction, regardless of the number of profiles one has. "During adolescence, we become detached from our parents and become attached to a group of friends. Through social media, teenagers are not only immersed in their peer group in class or at leisure, but suddenly, they join peer groups. For example, a group of Taylor Swift fans. swifty, or you're part of a fantasy reading group. So many options don't help. The office has expanded." In the conversation, Bruguer recalls one patient exclaiming: "This is so 2017!"