Self-Presentation Through Online Challenge Behavior: The Influence of the Adolescents’ Need to Belong on Risk Perception

Abstract

With the Philippines being the number 1 country for social media use, it is also evident that the youth are very much engaged in social networking applications and sites. This accessibility and engagement in the use of social networking applications have given rise to different social media trends and activities including the online challenges - a variation of themes of dares that are filmed and posted on different social media platforms. Using an exploratory sequential design, data from 196 late adolescents from cities in Metro Manila showed no significant correlation between scores from two scales - The Need to Belong and Risk Perception on Online Challenges, as a means of self-presentation and drive for participation in risky social media challenges and qualitative interviews presentation themes such as curiosity and fun as main driving factors for online challenge participation.