Virtual Natives

3Fluid Identities

VNs have ample opportunity to explore individual elements of who they are and how they represent themselves to the world, both online and off. Far from the narrowly gendered, racial, or social strata of previous generations, this is the most diverse generation so far, and they choose to define themselves in their own terms. Online, they can highlight or explore certain interests or aspects of themselves while downplaying others, and they can experiment, experiment, experiment.

Having grown up with smartphones and their apps since infancy, Virtual Natives have had a camera within arm's reach for pretty much their whole lives. And from the start, VNs have been turning that camera on themselves as much as they've been capturing the world around them. The word “selfie” was first used by an anonymous Australian on an online forum in 2002,¹ and by 2013, selfies had become enough of a thing that the Oxford English Dictionary named the term its word of the year.²

Then, in 2015, everything changed when Snapchat introduced its first Snapchat Lenses. These used active facial mapping to apply digital effects to the user's face in real time. In the early days, it was all rainbow barf and kitten ears, but it wasn't long before lenses became more subtle and started thickening eyelashes, enhancing cheekbones, and generally making users of all ages look pretty darn good, without necessarily flagging that a filter had been used.

While digital lenses and filters (lenses are ...