EDUCATIONAL MEDIA INTERNATIONAL, 2016 VOL. 53, NO. 3, 153–167 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2016.1236885 Digital identity formation: socially being real and present on digital networks Aras Bozkurt a  and Chih-Hsiung Tu b a Distance Education Department, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey; b College of Education, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaf, Arizona, USA ABSTRACT Social networks have become popular communication and interaction environments recently. As digital environments, so as ecosystems, they have potential in terms of networked learning as they fulill some roles such as mediating an environment for digital identity formation and providing social and emotional presence. Based on this phenomenon, the importance of identity formation as a sociological and psychological process was explained throughout this study. Following that, social networks as digital social ecosystems and learning environments in which self-actualization, self-presentation, and self-disclosure of the individuals were discussed and their necessity as well as their potential for social and emotional presence was explained to better understand social networks. Besides, social networks and “Facebook” as a case were examined. Within this perspective, the purpose of this study was to explore online social networks with an emphasis on learning; to put forward its educational premises; and to analyze digital identity formation, social presence, and emotional presence in social networks. Introduction Rise of the utopia through online social networks In the recent history of twenty-irst century, our lives have been changed drastically as a result of the opportunities that were provided by the Web, the Internet, and other network technologies. At the beginning of the new millennium, following irst-generation read-only Web, second-generation social Web penetrated into our lives. With the rise of Web 2.0 tech- nologies, new services and tools such as social network sites (SNSs) also appeared and became a part of our routines. Social networks became the phenomenon of the millennial era and were quickly adopted and widely accepted by individuals of digital knowledge age (Bozkurt, 2014). Millions of people started to use SNSs for diferent purposes in a wide spec- trum such as using them for communication needs or using for social learning environments. Based on the fact that facilitating social interaction is essential for meaningful learning in digital spaces, digital identity formation through SNSs and other network services is vital © 2016 International Council for Educational Media KEYWORDS Social networks; community of inquiry; social presence; emotional presence; identity formation; lifelong learning ARTICLE HISTORY Received 29 June 2016 Accepted 12 September 2016 CONTACT Aras Bozkurt arasbozkurt@gmail.com Bozkurt, A. & Tu, C-H. (2016). Digital Identity Formation: Socially Being Real And Present On Digital Networks. Educational Media International, 53(3), 153-167.