Daughters Online: Identity Formation and Information Behavior Among Undergraduate Women of African Immigrant Heritage

This study describes how collegiate women of African immigrant heritage construct their online identities based on racial, ethnic, educational, and community norms. Focus groups followed by iSquares activities elicited insight on the differences and similarities in participants’ online and offline identity formation. Findings from four group sessions indicate that participants’ online information behavior facilitates private, low-stakes identity exploration. Social media use or casual browsing was more prevalent than purposive searching via search engines and databases. While participants’ online information behavior transcended ethnic and national boundaries, offline identity formation primarily reified familial, national, and ethnic group identity.