Social Media Kaleidoscope: Social Media as Influential to Transnationality at UMBC

Abstract

This study considers the transnational perspective of millennial second-generation Americans and the modern interactive environment of social media. The research question examined these two concepts through twelve lightly structured interviews. A qualitative descriptive approach provided an answer to "how do transnational individuals think social media may influence their cultural dual-identity?" Transnational perspective was found to influence the interpretation of the social media environment and the online groups participants interacted with. Participants believed that social media was influential to their transnational identity from how they internalized their interpretations, actions, and reactions to the online environment. Theories used include "ideoscape," "technoscape," "mediascape," and "imagined communities."