Adolescence can be a difficult time, even under the best of circumstances. Adolescents and young adults are engaged in discovering their own identity while also trying to "fit in" with their peer groups, classmates, and coworkers. The forces that shape these developmental processes have grown increasingly more complex and contradictory in the age of the Internet. Young people are exposed to more media influence than at any time in history, and media messages can and do have significant effects on fashion trends and popular fads among young people. The very nature of peer communication has changed, as the Internet allows young people to make "friends" with a virtually unlimited number of other people. At the same time, studies indicate that young people are spending less time in face-to-face interaction than they are interacting through, or simply absorbing, electronic media. Many of the concerns from adolescence consist of making friends, being well liked, and being popular remains unchanged, but the forces that shape are often new, as are the implications of these new forces. This paper will first attempt to examine the nature of what it means to be "popular" in the context of contemporary adolescence. Secondly, will examine the influence that contemporary media has on popularity and lastly, the way that adolescents interact with peers and the rest of the world. .
Researchers have long been interested in the way fads and trends move among groups and sub-groups; this interest has only been amplified in the Internet age, where fads and trends not only sweep through peer groups, but can also "go viral" and become popular on a national, or even global scale virtually instantaneously. Adolescents often look for cues in the media and society as they attempt to form their own identities; ironically, "Expressing individuality often means adopting and adhering to the codes and dictates of a peer group or subculture" (Mastronardi, 2006).
