Cyber-extended Identity Among Young Female Armenian Immigrants: A

Interviews with seven female immigrant Armenian high school students explore their modes of incorporation through examining how their interactions with the Internet shape their conceptions of home, ideas about citizenship, differences from their parents and each other, and gender identity role development. Differences emerged between 1.5 and 2 nd generation participants‟ interactions with websites and the effects of these interactions on their modes of incorporation. Broad, flexible, and sometimes conflicting ideas about citizenship and gender roles emerged. As a result, the young women create a between-ness blurring the distinctions between life off-line and online where ethnicity and citizenship are flexible and where they accommodate without assimilation. These young women use their unique 1.5 and 2 nd generation, possibly cyber-extended identities, to challenge status quos established by their parents, schools, and society. The ability choose how to integrate and the impact of Internet technology on these choices, support contemporary 1.5 and 2 nd generation immigrants development of identities that allow them to accommodate without assimilation and develop flexible group memberships