The 13th International Scientific Conference

eLearning and Software for Education

Bucharest, April 27-28, 2017
10.12753/2066-026X-17-000

Citare / Citation

Călin, R.A. & Bîrsănescu, I.A. (2017). Young Romanians`”Digital Natives”, Social Media
and Self-Branding, în volumul conferinței internaționale The 12th International Scientific
Conference eLearning and Software for Education (eLSE), Bucharest, April 27-28, 2017,
10.12753/2066-026X-17-000.

YOUNG ROMANIANS’ “DIGITAL NATIVES”,

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SELF-BRANDING

Răzvan-Alexandru Călin, Irina-Alexandra Bîrsănescu

Teacher Training Department, University of Craiova, A.I.Cuza 13, Craiova, Romania
calinrazvanalexandru@yahoo.com, irinabirsanescu@gmail.com

Abstract: Belonging to a present which submits a huge influx of information, the generation of the past
10 years is “naturally” developing skills for managing the huge amount of inputs, "Digital Natives"
(the term belongs to Marc Prensky) seem to be perfectly adapted to a very animated environment in
which messages and stimuli come and go at high speed. In this informational whirlwind, the virtual
environment plays a central role and, gradually, the huge basket of the Internet will include
information, cultures and personalities. A reality of today’s Romanian school, identified in the findings
of a research from 2015, is that the school is only the third training provider regarding the best
practices in self-education by searching the Internet, after the circle of friends / colleagues and family.
Starting from this fact, our exploratory study aims to draw attention to education providers in Romania
on the need for early education of youth on the efficient exploitation of the Internet resources and,
including in terms of their future professional career, the optimal use of Social Media platforms in the
area of Self-Branding. Our undertaken endeavour highlights the need to educate young people for the
concern to build a personality profile, optimal and desirable in the virtual environment, in the context
of the likelihood of targeting some top jobs on the labour market of the future where important
employers frequently hire specialized recruitment agencies to identify the "perfect employee" for a
certain position. Study findings are summarized in a mini-guide to good practices upon which we insist
to be implemented early in the education of young people for a profitable meeting with Social Media.

Keywords: Romanian "Digital Natives"; Social Media; Self-Branding

I. INTRODUCTION

These days, all of us are eventually going to stumble upon the social-media and everything it
stands for, we all are finding it difficult to unveil its mysteries, and we all wish that we would possess
some kind of highly performance abilities or capabilities that would make us look more spectacular in
front of everyone else. Being pushed by all these motivations, we can thus afford a more condensed
understanding of how the Internet works, generally, of its unimaginable influence over, not only the
professional plan, but also on the personal one. Being surrounded by the Internet’s influences at every
step of our everyday life, our transposition in the virtual world becomes a necessary thing to do.
 The veracity of this action is elementary in order to remedy the reflection that other people
see, a reflection of our inner essence, of who we really are, deep down. To understand and learn the
way that this task can be accomplished, a more complex and a more in-detail study of the concept of
personal branding is imperiously needed. Personal branding can be defined as the manner in which an
individual wants to be perceived by society [6].
Considering the immense area that the Internet occupies, as a self-explanatory entity,
especially amongst youngsters, it’s a rather frightful and intimidating experience to create an image
that is personal, innovative, unique, patented, a representative of our real inner self, and that is because
the possibility of a comparison between MYSELF-EVERYONE ELSE arises. Though, it also needs to
be stated that a virtual status is built in time, with effort and dedication, and with a fairly complex
knowledge base.
After a skimming of some related articles, any one of us can observe the extraordinarily great
occurrences of some base concepts, highly valued when it comes to personal branding. Mainly, the
ideas that are being emphasized are as such: a solid understanding of one’s self, the establishment of a
well-structured system of values, the discovery of one’s own passions, dreams, the creation of a
societal image, and much more. There is also the importance of the physiological/biological genetic
heritage, of the intellectual capacity, of the emotional capacity – basically, the bio-psycho-social side
of an individual. Leaving behind the general aspects, a more in-depth exploration of the phenomenon
brings to attention the existence of a few laws of personal branding, amongst which there are:
specialization, leadership, personality, originality, one’s tendency to remark himself, unity, persistency
and benevolence. These “laws”, manifold concepts, concentrate, in nuce, everything that means
structure, the schematic design of personal branding [10].
For deeply understanding the idea of unicity, individualism and variety, there are some higher
concepts that need to be covered. Carl Jung mentioned in his detailed works about Individuation, a
process which resembles the transformation of one person to an unique Self (most finest, deepest,
certainly incomparable) [8]. Using the term person also brings up incertitude, because of the many
theories and aspects this term wears. Jung’s Persona (lat. mask) defines the social side of one’s
existence, side that we need to highlight. Therefore, we can make a difference between personality
derived forms.
Bringing to light such notions highlights the emphasis placed on the benefits brought forth by
their understanding, by their interconnectivity and their use.
Furthermore, the evolution of this study aims to represent the comprehension of awareness
concerning the subject of Romanian society, mostly the youngsters born in the technological age,
keeping in mind the absolute need for knowledge concerning human personality. Likewise, all that
Internet means is exposed by its unconfined perspectives.

II. DIGITAL NATIVES AND THE INTERNET

Internet is such a vast concept that requires a lot of information to make it possible being
defined or described properly, but a brief definition can be given in terms of comparison. Internet
represents an independent data universe where one can travel as he pleases. Internet is often seen as a
social equalizer, connecting people from all around the world, possibility which has both advantages
and disadvantages [13]. Living in the thick of technology made us dependent of what Internet means.
Interconnectivity brought us closer to each other in terms of religion, nationality and so on, it gave us
access to unlimited knowledge. But the question is – do we really make out the best of it?
Mark Prensky delivered to the world the term DIGITAL NATIVES, term that emblematizes
the idea of a generation belonging to technology, and, by any means, cyberspace. Digital natives can
be defined as native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.
Prensky points out the idea that nowadays students were born and raised in an environment which
entirely depends on high tech machinery. This reflects, without any doubt, on the way education is
transmitted. If we’d assume the existence of a dichotomy between the old and the new generations,
each of them with their manner of deliberation, we’d observe the immense disparity that isolates the
two, speaking in terms of lifestyle, learning, progressing altogether. Mark Prensky also mentions the
idea of a thinking pattern that, obviously, changes over time and needs to be understood as part of the
present society, no matter if it’s purely about digital natives or immigrants (growing from a generation
to another) [13].
Regarding the previous information, we can surmise how extensive the Internet training
amongst youngsters actually is. They are the ones who are facing the need of using the Internet each
and every day, the ones that managed to develop an addiction to technology, the ones that thoroughly
depend on it. Being born in this kind of background seems self-sufficient in terms of learning how to
use everything that’s placed in our hands, but, in reality, exposing adolescents to the facility of
accessing every kind of data desirable is rather alarming. In the absence of some genuine guidance in
this area, the drawbacks overcome the advantages of using the Internet.
What do we need to keep in mind concerning instilling knowledge in this field? The impact of
social-media (which is, of course, Internet based) on our daily lives. Kids born in an era where
everything goes online need to understand the power of a virtual image built accurately. According to
an exploratory study regarding self-education through Internet [3], here’s what we found:

How much time do you spend on the Internet?

E1 (16-18Y) E2(10-12Y)
<1h 23,7 43,3
1-3h 46,3 41
>3h 30 15,7
Table 1

Doing what?
E1 (16-18Y) E2(10-12Y)
Playing games 15,3 21,4
Studying 20,2 15,5
Surfing the Web 12,5 13,5
Social networks 34,4 17,3
Leisure time (music, movies 17,6 32,3
etc)
Table 2

We can thus distinguish how momentous is the impact that Social Media has on young people.
Most of their time is spent on surfing the Internet with no explicit purpose. As time goes by, social
networks become more and more consequential. In order to responsibly expose yourself in the online
environment, specialised field preparation is called for instead of autonomously disciplining yourself
through access expansion.

III. SELF-BRANDING - WHAT DOES IT MEAN AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Coming back to the idea of social media, regarding the multilateral context kids nowadays are
being born in, we can go through with a more detailed image of what a virtual representation of Self
means. According to a study Daniel Romero – a member of Cornell University, New York – launched
[15], there is an algorithm we can use in order to approximate the influence and passive levels of one
individual regarding the use of Internet. To sum it up, a specialised researcher can analyse any given
segment of the human character by simply studying the information we make public. Therefore, this
kind of data through we express ourselves in cyberspace defines us and makes us vulnerable. The
result of this process proves the undeniable weightiness of a well-contoured Self-reflection as seen
from Social Media (and altogether from the eyes of our profile visitors, even though there is a physical
limitation implied).
Cutting down to size, from the general idea of Social Media we can derive to Self Branding –
a notion a bit more heterogeneous – which requires rigorous steps, standardised typologies and a
permanent progress tracking. If referring to our personal Facebook profile, we tend to bring up to light
things that represent ourselves without properly filtering what we’re about to do, referring to building
an efficient personal brand we’re talking about real implication and detail processing in order to exude
the image and message we are striving to deliver.
But the question is – what exactly do we need to deliver? Self-Branding represents the mental
image that other people form when approaching you; it is a combination of values, talents and actions
which are automatically being assumed as yours [7]. By assimilating that, we can deduce that our main
interest is to clarify what those traits we want to show are. To make it easier to understand, think of
self-branding as a hyperlink: the moment you click a hyperlink (representative for a word/a whole
sentence and so on) you are instantly sent to its significance, to everything that reference means.
Personal branding works the same way: the moment someone hears your name should be instantly
transposed to what you’re doing, how capable are you of doing it, how do you make yourself
remarked and so on. So, what do we need to express when being accessed? A positive, progressive,
gratifying image; an image that grows interest; an image that SELLS.
Ultimately, the purpose of everything that self-branding means is the portrayal of one’s own
person as a product waiting to be bought. The key is represented by the fundamental element that
renders you one of a kind, different from any other individual, offering you a peculiar, own allure.
However, it’s important to remember that the image you present in the world has to be superimposed
on the real image. At this level the aforementioned personality types intervene. If the manifest
personality is resumed to the intersection point between the individual and the social, between the
psychological introversion and societal normativity (where confluences are produced, rapports, but
also dissociations), the perceived personality is strictly tied to the multitude of illustrations concerning
the OTHERS [1]. Hence, an organic exploration of one’s own personality and inner self it is absolutely
necessary for starting the branding process.
Introspection implies patience, intelligence, delving of one’s inner self. The establishing of a
set of values that we unconditionally respect, well determined objectives in life, passions, distinctions
– that represent a point of departure towards the construction of the personal brand [17]. Lacking
introspection, self-branding would become a near unachievable task, because bearing this weight
symbolizing deception a long period of time, pretending in order to obtain benefits, all of this leads to
the pauperization of one’s conscience.
Once the previous stage is perfected, we can talk about the functionality of self-branding,
about how it affects our future, our career, the social groups of which we are a part of. Although
perceived as a useful instrument in the domain of business, personal branding has begun to extend at
the level of individuality. Knowing how to make yourself treasured, being capable of exposing the
essential distilled from your existence helps you gain professionally, proving the fact that representing
your own true Self can emerge into a job, a career [11]. This disclosure is also based on Social Media,
bringing this concept back in discussion and mentioning the fact that the impact of social networks is
monumental. There has to be a remark on the offline side of the story: events of great awareness where
many important people expose themselves and their work are a great deal towards recognition; an
impressive curriculum vitae will weigh fundamentally; some suitable speaking skills along with
several recommendations will do the job for you [14]. The online ambiance offers, at last, swiftness en
route of accomplishments. Let us try transposing all this information into practicing!

IV. LET’S BUILD!

A temporal congruency of Romania with the west side of Europe is difficult to point out.
Regarding technology, until recently, Romania had been relatively behind the latest innovations –
especially because of the delayed access of information and the forced accommodation. The story of
the Romanian Internet begins with the year 1993 (the rise of the .ro domain), and in 1995 being
already in use [4]. This has marked an enlargement and development of the Romanian people’s
perspectives concerning this field.
It is desired that attention be focused on the expansion of information about the Internet,
especially in the rural areas where access to it is limited because of the economy. Given the fact that
being born in the era of the virtual and digital, the not-so-lucky youngsters do not have the occasion to
have practical experience in operating a personal computer. If the majority are learning to utilize the
Internet through repetition, error and correction, frequent use, the other situation implies an
intervention from the outside. It is a given the fact that, due to a total lack of knowledge concerning
this domain, error is unavoidable, and losses coupled with weak spots would be highlighted, as was
previously stated.
Education and personal development regarding the Internet has become a must-have of the
digital generation, the future of those born in the age of technology being highly dependent on them.
Keeping in mind that a multitude of jobs and workplaces are tied to an efficient use of a computer and
an Internet Network (ability which is most of the times gained not through theory, but through
continuous practice), for Romanians, especially students, this translates to a primal motivational factor
for a thoroughgoing study in the domain.
It’s more than obvious that in the actual context of digitalization of the human existence, there
is no need to supply and support any argument whatsoever on the necessity of knowing the base
principles of operating and using technology. The need of awareness over the existence of “digital
natives” from Romania is very important, the social basis of communication and maintaining social
interaction is slowly, but steadily moving towards the online environment. Thus, the assertion of the
School of Palo Alto “communication is inevitable” cannot be stressed enough and is now true more
than ever before.
Although at the level of common sense we still believe and find comfort in the fact that the
Internet provides us with anonymity, those “initiated” in the secrets and arts of the www know that any
form of behaviour in the online environment leaves “traces” which contain information about what we
think, believe or like. And those that are adept and preoccupied with finding this information, will
eventually find it. Thus, a simple “like” or “share” can tell more about us than perhaps a whole CV or
a Facebook/LinkedIn profile.
Perceiving all of these realities as arguments, our exploratory study is devised to create an
inventory and validate, in the form of a guide, a series of obligatory demeanours and behavioural
conducts that have to be taken into account, taking the guise of “checked” or “must do”, by anyone
who decides to become visible online, and these conducts are meant to assure favourable premises for
the construction of a personality profile in the online environment, pleasing and agreeable from the
point of view of a/an (self)evaluation realized both in the present, but especially in the future.
Following this chain of thought, we proposed to identify and make operational actions that are
desirable and more likely to be taken when devising a personality profile in the online environment,
which is equivalent, in the acceptance of our study, with a self-branding activity, the purpose of which
is to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness.
In order to attain this desideratum of ours, first we needed to establish what are the
dimensions or variables that describe the performance of the given component, namely in self-
branding.
We utilised the evaluation technique known as the Behavioural Expectancies Scale, belonging
to P.C Smith and L.M Kendall [16], which, starting from the Critical Incidents Technique of J.C.
Flanagan [5], manage, through explanations represented by adjectives, verbs or brief descriptions, to
clarify the key performance dimensions for the regarded activity, in our case that of self-branding, in a
quantifiable manner (for example, the occurrence frequency of certain behaviours).
Further on, we will present the main stages which are critical in the analysis and evaluation of
the self-branding activity.
The first stage: a number of 10 experts in the field of social media and career counselling were
given a task – to individually formulate a set of representative dimensions and schemes for a future
construction of a personality profile in the online environment. The chosen dimensions were collated,
the redundant were eliminated, the resulting list being the subject of a debate, to elaborate explanatory
definitions for every dimension. The only dimensions to be retained and preserved were those that had
a higher frequency of occurrence. The final list contained 5 dimensions.
The second stage: the list of dimensions, together with their definitions, has been distributed
to a number of 30 experts in the HR field, specialized and proficient in the evaluation of online
profiles of people, with the addition that they had to think and give one or two examples which would
describe an inferior, medium and superior behavioural performance on each dimension. After
collecting the examples, they were synthesized on a unique list, disposing of the repetitious and trivial
ones.
The third stage: A new group was called upon, made up of 10 experts in the field of social
media in career counselling, which was given a list with the dimensions and their definitions, and
another list with the examples from the previous activity, arranged in a random manner. The mission
of this group was to order and allocate each example to the category or dimension for which it was
written. This operation bears the name of “retroversion”. The examples that could not be assigned to
the category for which they were created are ambiguous anchors, and will thus not be utilized and
were eliminated.
The method has a fine validity from the point of view of its aspect, because the utilized
anchors reflect frequent behaviours that were already emphasised and identified as being paramount in
the self-branding activity. Furthermore, the examples are submitted and presented in the current
language of the online environment’s users and not in that of specialists or persons outside the
professional context [12].
These dimensions and social conducts have been organized and reworded to take the form of a
mini-guide of good practices, mainly destined for young people who decide to begin to be visible
online, but it can also be taken into consideration by any individual who wishes to review their own
virtual profile.

V. A MINI-GUIDE REGARDING AN SELF-BRANDING

Step One – The decision

1. I NEED to do it - We all know the first step we have to take seems impossible.
Embracing the decision to enter cyberspace is the very start of a long and bumpy road towards
building an online presence. No matter what the social network type is (Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn or any other), the key is – to try – as you never know what opportunities future might reserve
for you, keeping in mind that the vast majority of successful businesses/businessmen depend on social
media.
2. Any decision made has a reason behind it. This purpose is strictly bonded to our
objectives and future projections. As supposed, we tend to choose a category of people we would like
to address to, regarding what we expect to obtain. The domain covering our area of work must be
reflected in matters of design, composition, shared content and so on.

Step Two – Preparations

3. Managing opportunities – Before anything else, we must inform ourselves wisely in
terms of how the sites we are intending to use are working. Once we established that, comparing ideal,
successful profiles all around the world and extracting essential tips and tricks based on them it’s
bringing us closer and closer to acquire what we’re striving for.
4. How? – Any social website you are willing to visit and use is based on some
rigorous rules, on some steps that need to be embraced to make your role there easier. Social websites
offer us the possibility of placing our values into good light. All we have to do is learn how to take
advantage of these conveniences.
5. Knowing yourself – Self-knowledge depicts the prevalent condition of a good
exposure in Social Media. One should stay away from the idea of falsity, acknowledging the fact that
once you’ve created an image, you ought to maintain that image (and, naturally, it would become
overwhelming to wear a mask at all times, showing your true self sounding like an easier way to live).

Step Three – Let’s do it!

6. Be original – It is imperative to come up with something belonging to us only. We
seek unicity nowadays, an unparalleled envisioning standing out from the crowd. Emphasizing our
idiosyncratic side, focusing attention towards a true reflection of ourselves, a reflection that lacks
comparisons and patchworks are some piece of advice that could really help in this case scenario.
 7. Patience, patience, patience – Popularity cannot be built overnight and we cannot
permit being left unnerved and weakened because of our eagerness. Persistence is the key, success
being known as a winding phenomenon.
8. Keep going – For obtaining what you’re striving for, it is absolutely mandatory to
work constantly, to be active at all times. Avoiding long breaks and being fully responsive with your
activity attracts potential collaborations. No one would want inconsistency in their lives and careers.
9. Promote yourself – Being known requires boosts and build-ups. The help of an
influential individual is never to be refused and the same goes by with specialists in your domain,
friends and colleagues willing to participate along, even businesses down to push for your expansion.
Don’t limit yourself between shares and likes: detach from the online environment and try getting
some attention in the real life too.

Step Four – The Evaluation

10. Stay professional – Keep your eyes wide open when you make anything public.
We shall not forget that maintaining a major league image, notwithstanding the area we are evolving
in, represents the gold. Anything that could provoke, enrage or incite other people is to be avoided.
The cyberspace remains a public space, where anything can be found at anytime by anyone – and
people nowadays are truly dedicated to finding what they want, when they want.

Final Step – The RE-Evaluation

11. To be aware of what is it that we need to change or keep doing, we should remain
cautious about our progress/stagnation/decrease. Paying attention to the reaction public has upon our
activity we can enhance productivity, we can upgrade opinions and so on. Cleaning up is not only for
the immediate tangible reality, but it extends to media as well. Take your time to dust your profile
periodically. Remove what doesn’t represent you any longer.

VI. CONCLUSIONS

Everything that we do says something about us – from our speech to our attire, from our
relations with those around us to the way we behave in the privacy of our homes, from our passions to
the image displayed on the social networks.
Translating the observations and the conclusions towards the domain of self-branding, we can
infer the reality of the fact that, in order to achieve and attain a series of objectives and aims in
communication, it is necessary to take into consideration an anticipatory knowledge of the analysis
and interpretation of the detained data on one hand, and of the planning and staging of the construction
of a personality profile in the online environment on another hand. Training and personal development
to further this aim is desirable.
The online presence of an individual implies a similar approach with that of a public
communication. In the latter case, at the subconscious level of the mind, a process takes place: that of
the anticipatory knowledge of message receiver, a fact that assures the adjusting of the speech to the
peculiarities of the message receiver [2]. The more this process is brought from the subconscious level
closer to the conscious one, the more the chances that the message transmitted in the cyberspace to be
more efficient and effective. And think about how beneficial could an aimed development of the
digital natives in the domain of the virtual self-branding be!
In fact, our study highlights the significance of a responsible management of any undertaken
activity in the online environment, emphasizing the necessity of a conscious step-by-step journey,
following the good practices guide, a guide which is improvable and adaptable, with the express
individual purpose of forming a solid identity in the cyberspace.

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