Investigating the Impact of Entertainment on Adolescent’s Identity Crisis based on An Islamic Approach

Nowadays, entertainment, alongside family and peer groups, influences adolescents' individual and social morale through various functions. According to education experts, adolescence is a period marked by significant and pivotal personality changes, with identity crises being among the most critical ones. Adhering to Islamic perspectives can guide the utilization of entertainment's positive effects while mitigating its negative impacts on adolescents' identity crises. The present study, using a descriptive-analytical method, aims to elucidate this perspective. The findings indicate that, by adhering to Islamic perspectives, some positive effects of entertainment on adolescents' identity crises include: fostering permissible joy, educating on various matters to guide public thoughts and pivotal emotions toward religious goals, releasing suppressed and disruptive emotions, creating excitement to diversify life and promote permissible enjoyment, temporarily and purposefully forgetting burdensome responsibilities and problems, facilitating self-discovery and better self-assessment, substituting for undesirable and reprehensible behaviors, promoting proper socialization and the transmission of Islamic values, and strengthening teamwork and a sense of cooperation in virtuous acts. Conversely, neglecting Islamic perspectives can lead to negative effects of entertainment on adolescents' identity crises, such as: fostering fleeting joy and boasting about it, depleting emotions necessary for fulfilling religious and other responsibilities, promoting obscenity, excessive thrill-seeking that gradually diminishes positive emotional responses and leads to shortsighted behaviors, causing neglect of family and peer groups, and substituting desirable behaviors such as occupational activities or revolutionary engagement.