RESUMO
Globalization is affecting the identity of adolescents worldwide. Armenia, a country beset by many challenges since 1895, remained isolated after it separated from the Soviet Union in 1991. Widespread poverty limited Armenia's access to technology until recently. This chapter reports the influence of globalization on rural and urban Armenian adolescents' selves and future selves through Internet use. Participants included 92 rural and 80 urban adolescents (Mage = 15.9 years). Using KagitÒ«ibasi's (2007) model of family change, we found that rural adolescents, who used the Internet less frequently, identified more closely with traditional cultural attitudes and reflected a family model of interdependence and a heteronomous-related self. Urban adolescents, who used the Internet more frequently, were developing global identities through their greater exposure to worldwide media, while also retaining the essence of their Armenian heritage. This research begins to fill a gap in the limited literature on human development from post-Soviet countries.