ERIC Number: EJ1133581
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1743-9884
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Available Date: N/A
The Promposal: Youth Expressions of Identity and "Love" in the Digital Age
Learning, Media and Technology, v42 n1 p74-86 2017
The "promposal" is a growing, North American high school ritual in which one graduating senior asks another to the prom in a creative, witty, public performance that is recorded and posted online. A "YouTube" search for "promposal" yields over 49,000 hits, with videos receiving up to 8,000,000 views. What does the promposal reveal about the construction of gender and identity amongst teenagers in the digital era and the nature of the voices channelled, expressed or spoken? In a study of high school students' responses to the promposal as well as a discourse analysis of "YouTube" videos, this paper argues that: students use promposals to achieve social aims by constructing and presenting desirable identities and voices across multiple platforms; the performances of gender seen in online promposals tend to draw upon, reflect, and reify traditional, hegemonic patterns of behaviour and to amplify the male voice; and promposals are a means of announcing the debut of young people as productive contributors to the neo-liberal economy as they prepare to leave high school.
Descriptors: Handheld Devices, Social Media, Identification (Psychology), Adolescents, High School Students, Discourse Analysis, Video Technology, Social Influences, Gender Issues, Behavior, Neoliberalism, Student Surveys, Focus Groups, Interviews, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada (Ottawa)
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