Digital media and cultural identity among Somali youth: negotiating tradition and modernity in the social media era

The rapid expansion of digital media has reshaped how Somali youth construct, express, and negotiate their cultural identity within contemporary social life. This study examines how young people in Mogadishu use platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to perform Somali identity, interpret global digital influences, and balance tradition and modernity. Guided by Social Identity Theory and cultural globalization theory, the study adopts a qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews with 30 purposively selected participants, including 24 youth aged 18–30 and six key informants comprising clan elders, cultural experts, and community leaders. Data was analyzed through thematic analysis, combining inductive coding with a theoretically informed interpretation. The findings show that Somali youth use digital media to express cultural belonging through the Somali language, poetry, traditional dress, music, storytelling, religious references, and cultural discussion. However, digital identity formation is not a simple process of cultural preservation or loss. Exposure to global fashion, music, lifestyle content, celebrity culture, and debates on personal freedom creates both attraction and tension among young people. Youth respond through selective adaptation, cultural filtering, and boundary-making, accepting global influences that support creativity, learning, and self-development while modifying or rejecting those perceived to conflict with Somali values, modesty, religion, family reputation, and social responsibility. The study concludes that Somali youth negotiate digital modernity through contested cultural continuity, where pride, pressure, intergenerational authority, gendered expectations, and online visibility shape the preservation, adaptation, and redefinition of Somali identity online.