Lenhart, A., Smith, A., Anderson,
M., Duggan, M., Perrin, A., “Teens, Technology and
Friendships.” Pew
Research Center, August, 2015.
Online friendships: Are they real?
The debate continues on whether or
not online friendships are true or just a casualty of Internet trolling. Add to this the wave of teenage years and
adolescence at its best. Are teens
creating lasting friendships formed through social media? The majority of social interaction is often
seen in social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and various
other sites that are popping up daily.
Teens are using these sites to form friendships that may or may be
genuine.
As a mother, this poses an
interesting situation. Although my
daughter is not quite a teenager, she is exposed to online player who are
significantly older than her asking for friendship requests in order to play
online together. I am aware of these and
put in place my parental controls, but it makes me wonder if other parents do
the same. Can we truly expect these
online friendships to be genuine and do teens view them as such?
Data addressing these very questions
was collected for the Pew Research Center.
1,060 teens, ages 13 to 17, were surveyed from September 25 to October 9
and February 10 to March 16, 2015. The
data collected attempted to address how teens are forming online friendships
and in what capacity.
As we well know, it’s crucial for
teens to form friendships and maintain those friendships in a healthy
manner. Social media has made it
incredibly easy to connect with people 5 miles to 5,000 miles away. The data collected reflected 57% of teens met
a new friend online (p. 15). The
majority of these friendships were formed through social media or online
gameplay (p. 17).
Even more of a concern to me is that
20% of all teens have met an online friend in person (p. 21). That is definitely a scary thought. I would hope that the data collected is
accurate and that teens surveyed were truthful in giving the information. I don’t know how I would feel if those
numbers were bigger.
The data also concluded that boys
are more likely than girls to make online friends (p. 19). This could be attributed to the online gaming
community. The research shows that
online gaming builds stronger connections between friends (p. 48).
In contrast to teenage boys’ online
activities, girls are also more likely to unfriend, unfollow, and block former
friends (p. 68). Teens come in many
forms, but most would agree that friendship is perhaps a top priority. 83% of teen social media use makes them feel
more connected to their friends’ lives (p. 54).
Some of these connections include causing or creating drama to receiving
support when support is needed (p. 56).
Some teens have felt pressure to post only flattering content (p. 60). This is just another form of conformity and
pressure to look a certain way. This may
or may not lead to self-esteem issues which could become a bigger problem later
on.
The numbers are staggering, to say
the least. 55% of teens spend time every
day text messaging, 79% use instant messaging, 72% spend time with friends via
social media, 64% use email, 59% use video chat, 52% via online video gaming,
42% use messaging apps such as Kik and WhatsApp (p. 3).
The most disturbing trend for me is
the friendship that finds its way out of the online community. Teens between ages 15 to 17 make about 60% of
teens meeting friends in someone’s home, school, or online platforms (p. 31). The first thing exchanged is a phone number (p.
22).
It has become increasingly easy to
join social media sites with little or no age requirements. For this reason, parents need to be aware
that it’s happening with ease and on a daily basis. Teenagers have loads of pressure already from
what I can remember. Do they really need
to use technology to achieve lasting friendships? I sure hope not, but you never know.
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I really enjoyed your blog post Melissa. I agree with you when you said that it is very alarming that so many teens are actually meeting in person the friends they make online. To me that isn't very safe because I feel that anyone can trick kids on the internet about their age.I understand that kids today are growing up with the internet, but I think that they should be spending more time hanging out with their friends instead of being online. There are so many fun and safe activities that teens can be participating in together. In my opinion online friendships are not friendships that will create lifelong friends.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dulce. I agree with you 100%. That was an alarming number of teens meeting people after they established online friendships. What caught my eye was that we don't know for sure that the numbers are accurate. Can you imagine if they're higher than that and they didn't answer because they were afraid to tell the truth? Scary thought.
DeleteThe infographic was was nice and well-done. What did you think of the program you used to make it? Why did you choose that one over the other?
ReplyDeleteI decided to use Piktochart because I've used it once before and still don't feel confident enough to say that I'm an expert at it. I like to know what I'm getting myself into when using a program like this. I browsed Easel.ly and Infogr.am and would like to know more about them before using them.
DeleteYour article was very interesting, especially since I just gave my oldest child a cellphone. We have had to have some serious and open discussions.
ReplyDelete