Stereotypes of gender are part of a social construct, where forms of being, roles, and tendencies have been delimited, and although a process of de...

Stereotypes of gender are part of a social construct, where forms of being, roles, and tendencies have been delimited, and although a process of deconstruction of these has begun at present, in most cases, education and formation continue under conceptions that are reaffirmed in any media. On the other hand, women tend to be more prone to fall into these stigmas and ways of being, as in the social networks presented for analysis, they are much more active. In addition, being more visual social networks, women feel an aesthetic interest that leads them to constantly upload content. Taking this into account, it can be evidenced that, first, thanks to the logic that Instagram handles, many gender stereotypes are reaffirmed in these media, and due to the ease and speed with which messages are spread daily, many contents that reaffirm the same and create insecurities are found. However, in recent years, various movements have emerged where profiles are sought to be created on social networks that are much closer to realities and where these pre-established stereotypes are broken. However, these movements have generated confusion in modern individuals, as sometimes new stereotypes are propagated, which are not necessarily gender-related, but do not collide with the limit of what is healthy. For example, currently, many people with extreme obesity conditions have begun to show their bodies in social networks in a positive way, selling the idea that it is okay to be one way or another. This with the idea of breaking the stereotypes imposed by advertising and by television beauty pageants where the perfect measures are ninety (90) sixty (60) ninety (90) reaffirmed by fitness trends. However, despite the birth of this movement having the purpose of breaking stereotypes, it is actually creating new ones, as neither fitness trends nor obesity are purely healthy lifestyles, and beyond self-love or self-acceptance, there are serious physical and mental health problems. Likewise, many other phenomena have been presented, which reaffirm both past stereotypes and new stereotypes. These movements on social networks generate confusion, anxiety, depression, stress, and an infinity of negative feelings, as modern individuals with active virtual identities feel the need to show themselves in a way that people like regardless of how they feel, this has led to the creation of multiple identities or the loss of these. It can then be said that the individual lives for the likes, for acceptance, and not for what makes them feel good. In summary, it is possible to say that the perpetuation of stereotypes and the reaffirmation of these have led to a trivialization of social media content, which has become spaces where individuals cannot really show themselves as they are. In addition, the logic of the platforms and the ability to viralize messages has made it easier to propagate these and create new ways of being. Specifically, social networks Instagram and Twitter have become spaces of acceptance where the primordial is what people will say, this has led to an identity crisis in individuals. For this reason, it is necessary to address the issue of identity and virtual identities, as it has already been proven that social networks are a scenario of perpetuation and creation of stereotypes, and they affect the construction of identity. The importance of stereotypes in identity construction: To begin to talk about the phenomenon of identity and virtual identities, it is necessary to start from the general term until reaching a construction of the term virtual identity. The term identity presented previously is ambiguous and can be approached from different perspectives. However, it is pertinent to mention that in this section, emphasis will be placed on it from two approaches that are directly related. First, the personal identity will be discussed and defined, and secondly, the virtual identity will be discussed. It is for this reason that it is pertinent to start from a definition. According to Merino, Rascón, & Ruiz, (2004) citing Erikson, 1989, “individual identity is a definition of oneself that is partly implicit, and that a person elaborates as a constituent element of their personality, and this definition continues to be developed throughout their life” (p.1). From this, it could then be said that identity is a personal construction of the individual, which answers questions such as: who am I? how am I? why am I like this? and from the answer to these, it is possible to define oneself based on what identifies the individual. However, it is also pertinent to mention that as Maalouf affirms, (2012) “identity is not given once and for all, but is built and transformed throughout existence” (p3). This is relevant because it implies that identity is a phenomenon that is in motion, that is, it is subject to transformations, and these transformations depend on various factors starting with social factors, because for an individual to be able to determine who they are, it is necessary for them to understand how they want to be seen by society and what makes them unique as part of it. Consequently, from the above, it can then be said that the appropriation of the identity phenomenon by the individual leads to the human being adapting and adapting their way of being according to the context in which they find themselves. For this reason, in order to address the phenomenon, it is necessary to start from the context. Taking this into account, it must be assumed that at present we live in a technological society, where the media is more than a tool, it has become an extension of the body, as mentioned in the previous section, spaces have been virtualized and, therefore, the body has been virtualized, resulting in digital natives, millennials, and centennials not being able to live without being connected in one way or another. For this reason, their construction of identity is closely related to the use of technology and specifically social networks, as according to the newspaper La República (2019), “a Colombian can spend up to seven hours on social networks, and children and young people are the ones who spend the most time on the platforms”. This means that contextually they are immersed in the technological phenomenon. This brings with it positive and negative consequences for the individual, as social networks have served for the development of the personality of young people. Additionally, these allow finding like-minded people so that they can build broader social circles and there is no room for exclusion. However, as mentioned previously, these movements that allow diverse content, at times, are not so diverse and configure ways of being in the individual, generating identity crises, as not knowing how to answer the question 'who am I?' the individual begins to feel confusion, and this confusion can generate a diversity of negative feelings. At the same time, it is pertinent to mention that the function that this type of media fulfills when generating identity is to shape the contexts and the stories that are presented to consumers, and it is these same stories that shape people's reality. However, these media tend to idealize people's lives and through these ideals, stereotypes are created, these stereotypes make people's identities fragmented since at times consumers do not show themselves in a real way and their physical and virtual identity enters into opposition, thus leading to the creation of false identities, or sometimes multiple identities, different ones that do not allow the individual to define themselves. Consequently, it can be said that virtual identities are sometimes false identities, and this leads to identity crises, as showing oneself in a certain way on social networks and acting in another way in everyday life leads individuals to not really know who they are. Additionally, these individuals begin to go through a phenomenon