ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to analyze and increase the understanding of how young equestrians, in a sport school context, perceive, construct, negotiate and manage identities on social media. This article presents how a specific group of young athletes (equestrians) use social network sites (SNS), such as Facebook and Instagram, in relation to their everyday lives as students attending upper secondary schools with an equestrian sports profile. Social media is increasingly important for young people’s perceptions, constructions, and managing of identities. Using a multifaceted theoretical framework, including Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective, we will explore how young equestrians perceive the content on SNS and analyze how they act and create content in relation to existing norms and cultures. Equestrianism is one of the largest sports in Sweden and several upper secondary schools in Sweden offer programs with an equestrian profile. Studies on sport schools evince a focus on elite sport and competition, which affects norms and ideologies at these schools. Through focus group interviews with 25 students, we show that the situation is complex and contradictory. The results indicate that young riders have identified an online stable culture where high performance equestrianism is the norm. Our study shows that the educational environment is not the only factor affecting the students, but that social media is also a part of the young athletes’ constructions of identity. The image of the employable ‘super equestrian’ who is attractive, wears the ‘right clothes’, is successful, and acts ‘professionally’ is the most desirable representation online. The young equestrians are critical of what is communicated on SNS in relation to horses and riding, and they are uncertain of how to position themselves in relation to this communication.

摘要

本研究的目的是分析和加深对年轻马术运动员在体育学校环境中如何感知、构建、协商和管理社交媒体上的身份的理解。本文介绍了一群特定的年轻运动员（马术运动员）如何使用社交网站 (SNS)，例如 Facebook 和 Instagram，来了解他们作为具有马术运动档案的高中学生的日常生活。社交媒体对于年轻人的认知、建构和身份管理越来越重要。使用包括 Erving Goffman 的戏剧视角在内的多方面理论框架，我们将探讨年轻马术家如何看待 SNS 上的内容，并分析他们如何根据现有规范和文化行事和创作内容。马术是瑞典最大的运动之一，瑞典的几所高中提供马术课程。对体育学校的研究表明了对精英体育和竞赛的关注，这会影响这些学校的规范和意识形态。通过对 25 名学生的焦点小组访谈，我们表明情况复杂而矛盾。结果表明，年轻骑手已经确定了一种在线稳定的文化，其中高性能马术是常态。我们的研究表明，教育环境不是影响学生的唯一因素，社交媒体也是年轻运动员身份建构的一部分。有吸引力的“超级马术家”的形象，穿着“合适的衣服”，是成功的，并以“专业”的方式行事是在线上最理想的表现形式。年轻的马术家对 SNS 上与马匹和骑马有关的交流内容持批评态度，他们不确定如何在这种交流中定位自己。