Social media arrived just as I, a younger millennial, was on the brink of teenhood. My friends and I signed up for accounts on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, as well as less remembered sites such as the now defunct Bebo. We didn’t know what we were doing; no one did. We posted indiscreet messages and photos on public feeds that we wouldn’t want any future employer – or really anyone, for that matter – to see. Then gradually we, and our parents and their parents, too, learned what it means to live with that world-changing phenomenon that we term social media. We started to find different ways to adapt, a process that is ongoing.

But what is the experience like for gen Z, the first generation of “digital natives”, for whom the language of the internet is a mother tongue? That is the question that led the Italian photographer Niccolò Rastrelli to embark on the project IRL (the online acronym, of course, for a phrase denoting our offline existences: in real life).

Rastrelli has long been interested in the way people construct their identities through self-presentation. “In the last few years, I’ve also worked a lot with younger people. I’m older and don’t have children, so I want to understand their point of view,” says the photographer, who was born in 1977, making him a member of generation X. Past works include a project exploring the rising popularity around the globe of the youth subculture of cosplay. Now he felt it was time to broaden his focus to a more ubiquitous experience: being on the “socials”.

“I wanted to portray the diversity in gen Z,” Rastrelli says. He recruited subjects across the full span of the generation, from 14-year-olds to adults in their late 20s. Most were in Italy, but he also visited the UK, Morocco and France. Each portrait has two paired components. On one side the subject is photographed in their bedroom, whether in their family home or in a flatshare or university halls. They are intentionally posed, nearly always making eye-contact with the camera. S ome clutch their phones, or sit by a computer. Often there is the familiar sight of a tangle of cords and plugs in an extension cable by the bed.

“I decided to shoot in the bedroom because when you’re young it’s such an important place. It’s really your first solo home,” Rastrelli explains. “Before social media, it was also the main place where you could build your identity.” Your room and the things inside it – posters, paintings, books, an electric guitar, a barbell, a massivestuffed unicorn – tell a story about what kind of person you are and want to be.

Nowadays, the same goes for social media. And so, alongside those portraits, Rastrelli asked each of his subjects to pick snapshots of their phone screens that represented their usual activity. Nearly everything is from Instagram, one of gen Z’s main apps of choice – and many of the images are from temporary “stories” rather than posts on the feed. There are selfies with silly filters, casual snaps of friends and food, black-and-white portraits taken with film cameras. It was important to Rastrelli that the youngsters “co-curated” the selection, just as they had arranged and posed in their bedrooms.

Rastrelli also gave his subjects a questionnaire about their relationship with social media. Many responses surprised him – for example, that they often maintain more than one account on a single platform. Lana, who is 16, has multiple Instagram profiles with varying levels of privacy. “Only on my most private account do I feel free to really be myself,” she told him. He was also struck by how many young people see social media less as a site of personal expression than as a work tool. The clearest example was 23-year-old web developer and social media manager Francesco, who doesn’t post on his own account. As Rastrelli observes, “It’s like when you meet chefs. They all say they don’t cook at home because they’re cooking all day in the restaurant.”

Recent years have seen growing debate about the potential dangers of social media for young people. In the UK, a ban for under-16s is set to be enforced from next spring. (In Italy there are no such plans.) But from his conversations with gen Z-ers, Rastrelli doesn’t think they seem any more affected than their elders: “Many of them use social media less than people from my generation.” The primary difference is the platforms they go to. For example, Facebook, now associated with boomers, barely came up. It’s made Rastrelli consider repeating the project but focusing on the older generation instead: “We are all involved with social media.”

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Stevie, 20, Rome (main picture top)

A student from Pennsylvania, Stevie is now studying abroad in Rome. He says he has two Instagram accounts: a public one and a private one, and tends to shift in tone and identity depending on which he’s using. He dreams of becoming a media personality.

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Lana, 16, Florence

Lana’s first smartphone – obtained aged 11 after longnegotiations with her parents – opened up a new world, from group chats to shared photos. Social media is integral to her daily life: TikTok is more of a pastime while Instagram is like a diary. Her bedroom is the place she feels most authentic, she says. She reads a lot, from YA novels to heavier authors like Dostoevsky and Freud, who help her better understand herself and the world around her.

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Sofia, 14, Arezzo

Sofia attends an art school where she studies animation, a passion she discovered thanks to a digital creator who makes content about the history of cartoons. Her online life is limited: her parents have blocked Instagram and TikTok, so she uses WhatsApp to share drawings, homework and memes with friends.

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Roberto, 27, London

Born in Italy to a Ghanaian family, Roberto has lived in London for the past eight years and currently works as a personal trainer and a bartender. He didn’t get his first smart-phone until around 15 or 16 – before that he used a basic phone so his parents could keep track of him. He is cautious about what he shares and views: mainly fashion and fitness content.

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Mark, 28, Florence

Mark, who was born in Nigeria and raised in Italy, paid for his first smartphone himself aged 12, by doing odd jobs and reselling customised clothes. He used to alter his features in photos, removing elements like his nose to escape identity labels. Now, as a freelance creative, he mainly uses Instagram as a tool for research, and rarely posts.

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Melina, 24, Arles

Melina, who studied 3D animation, relies on Instagram for tutorials and discovering other artists. She also follows friends and humorous accounts. She shares infrequently, mostly drawings rather than photographs of herself, rarely edited beyond an occasional filter. She keeps a second account with no other followers, where she stores images to remember moments of her life.

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Anna, 23, Glasgow

What excited Anna most when she got her first phone, aged 11, was the ability to photograph and film the world around her. Now her dream is to work in film, and she says social media will be a useful way to share work and find opportunities. In the meantime, she uses Instagram mostly as a source of creative inspiration. When she posts, she likes to avoid putting herself at the centre of the image.

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Andrea, 22, Florence

Andrea maintains two separate Instagram accounts, a personal one and a professional one for his work – as well as appearing in a local theatre troupe he performs solo as a drag artist. He says his approach is consistent across both his accounts: showing himself without filters , whether beautiful or deliberately grotesque, retouching images in Photoshop only to make a scene more “editorial”.

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Ali, 28, Rabat

Ali’s first proper smartphone, after years spent using broken old ones, changed everything, allowing him to take and share photos for the first time. These days he works in social media marketing, helping companies and projects grow and gain visibility. He says that he sees his bedroom as a place to rest and think, while online is where he can express his personality and take inspiration from others.

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Silvia, 23, Rome

Silvia says she feels like herself both offline and online, in different ways. At home she is more quiet; on social media, more extrovert. She says her family hasn’t always approved of her lack of filter on the internet, but she continues regardless. Music is central to her life – she’s part of a techno collective and performs as a DJ.

• To see more images from Niccolò Rastrelli’s project, go to instituteartist.com.