1. Social Networking & Adolescents
An analysis of how social
networking sites (SNS) affect the
quality of adolescent peer
relationships
I.D. 200741276

2. What are social network sites?
• They are a specific type of social media, based off of
Web 2.0
• Defined as
▫ “a dedicated website or other application which
enables users to communicate with each other by
posting information, comments messages, images, etc”
(Oxford Dictionary)
• Examples include:
▫ Facebook
▫ Twitter
▫ MySpace

3. Facebook timeline – an example of a
common SNS used by teenagers
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzPEPfJHfK
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4. SNS Usage
• SNS emerged only a few short years ago in 1998
with the launch of SixDegrees.com (Boyd &
Ellison, 2008)
• Since then the usage has grown exponentially,
expanding into the teenage demographics
▫ Over 500 million people worldwide have an
account
▫ 13% of Facebook users in the UK are between the
ages of 13-17
▫ 22% of teenagers log into their favourite SNS
more than 10 times a day (O‟Keeffe et al, 2011)

5. Is spending this amount of time on
SNS healthy for the development of
adolescent peer relationships?
I will present both sides of the
argument and then let you decide

7. Reasons why:
• Supplements face-to-face relationships
• Expands social capital
• Relieves social anxiety

8. Supplements face-to-face
relationships

9. Supplements face-to-face relationships
• 10-20 years ago teenagers used the telephone to
communicate with their friends when they were
apart
• Now, sites like SNS provide a replacement for
this
• They allow teens to remain in touch with their
offline friends, even when they are not together
physically

10. Supplements face-to-face relationships
• According to the co-construction model, online
and offline worlds are psychologically related
(Subrahmanyam et al, 2008)
• They are inseparable processes
• It makes sense then, that the majority of teens
would use SNS to remain in touch with offline
friends

11. Supplements face-to-face relationships
• As already mentioned, most youth use SNS in
order to maintain existing relationships
• 80% of youth said they use it to communicate
with people in their offline world
(Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008)
• Most common forms of activities are:
▫ Making plans
▫ Gossiping/catching up

12. Supplements face-to-face relationships
• Can help to strengthen long distance
relationships
▫ How?
 It does not matter if you are in different time
zones, making communication easier
 Allows you to keep in touch via messages and
pictures

13. Supplements face-to-face relationships
• Teenagers believe that SNS have improved the
quality of their relationship with their friends
▫ In fact, the 2001 Pew Internet and American Life
Project study found that 46% of teenage
respondents believed the quality of their
friendships did improve because of SNS
(Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008)

14. Expands social capital

15. Expands social capital
• What is social capital?
▫ Definition: “the idea that one derives benefits
though their network of relationships” (Ahn, 2011)
▫ This can include things such as:
 Receiving advice
 Getting access to information
 Receiving social support

16. Expands social capital
• These connections allow for bonding, which
results in an increase in relationship strength
• There are various activities on SNS such as
Facebook that allow for an increase in social
capital, including:
▫ Status updates
▫ Uploading photos
▫ Commenting on friends‟ posts
▫ Playing games with one another
▫ Sharing interests (Ahn, 2012)

17. Expands social capital
• Also allows teens to make connections with
others that they may not have been able to make
in their offline world
▫ How? They can easily find out about friends who
have common interests and can also meet new
friends who are in their extended social network

18. Relieves social anxiety

19. Relieves social anxiety
• The thought of communicating face-to-face can
be very traumatizing for some individuals
• Social anxiety can be very crippling during the
teenage years because one of the life tasks in this
age group is to form friendships
• SNS provides an alternative outlet for these
individuals to socialize

20. Relieves social anxiety
• In a 2002 study on teens aged 10-17:
▫ 25% reported forming casual online friendships
• In a 2006 study on teens:
▫ They determined that introverts form friendships
online in order to compensate for their poorer
social skills
▫ This lead to greater self-disclosure
(Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008)

21. Relieves social anxiety
• Teens feel that online communication is more
effective for self-disclosure (Subrahmanyam and
Greenfield, 2008)
▫ This allows them to open up and become closer to
others
▫ Once this original bond has been formed, it makes
face-to-face communication easier for those with
social anxiety

23. Reasons why:
• Sexual victimization
• Cyberbulling
• Lower quality communication

24. Sexual victimization

25. Sexual victimization
• What is sexual victimization?
▫ “Unwanted requests online to talk about
sex, provide personal sexual information and/or
do something sexual” (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2008)

26. Sexual victimization
• Statistics
▫ In the past year, 15% of youth aged 10-15 reported
experiencing unwanted sexual solicitation online
▫ However, only 4% of these incidences occurred on
SNS (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2008)
▫ Therefore, claims that SNS hosts an environment for
sexual solicitation are not necessarily accurate
• Although the risk is still present, teens are less likely
to experience unwanted sexual solicitations in SNS
compared to other online sources such as instant
messaging and chat rooms

27. Sexual victimization
• The belief that most perpetrators are middle
aged men lying about their age is not necessarily
true, at least in regards to SNS
▫ In fact, most incidences involve peers from their
offline worlds
• 95% of sex offenders are honest about their age
online (Smith et al, 2008)

28. Sexual victimization
• Adverse effects:
▫ SNS is instant – as soon as something is posted
everyone within a social network can see it
▫ Therefore, being sexually victimized can be
humiliating and traumatizing for the victim
▫ If enough people see what has been posted, it can
also subsequently lead to cyberbullying

29. Cyberbullying

30. Cyberbullying
• Definition:
▫ “the deliberate use of digital media to communicate
false, embarrassing or hostile information about
another person” (O‟Keeffe et al, 2011)
• Prevalence:
▫ In this digital age, it is becoming almost as prevalent
as offline bullying
▫ In a 2005 UK study, 20% of participants said they had
been a victim of cyberbullying (Subrahmanyam and
Greenfield, 2008)

31. Cyberbullying
• This can have profound psychological
effects, including but not limited to:
▫ Depression
▫ Anxiety
▫ Isolation
▫ Suicide (O‟Keefe et al, 2011)
• As a result of these negative psychological
effects, teens may detach themselves from their
offline worlds and discontinue communicating with
their peers

32. Cyberbullying
• Who are the perpetrators?
▫ 2/3 of victims know their cyberbully in their
offline world (Subrahmanyam and
Greenfield, 2008)
▫ This demonstrates that online and offline worlds
are interconnected
▫ If a teen is bullied online, it can negatively affect
their offline social relationships. Reasons why are
listed on the following slide

33. Cyberbullying
• Causes negative social effects, such as:
▫ Offline bullying
 Some cyberbullies do it because they are too
cowardly to face the victim without a veil of
anonymity, however others are also traditional
offline bullies
▫ Social exclusion
 Peers may not want to be associated with the victim
of the bullying due to fear or embarrassment

34. Lower quality communication

35. Lower quality communication
• 37% of Facebook users have over 100 friends
(Wilson et al, 2009)
▫ The average teenager has even more
• But are they really “friends” with all these
people? The answer seems to be: no
▫ Teens typically only communicate with a small
portion of their online friends
▫ In fact, the average teen makes no communication
with over 50% of their “friends” on Facebook
(Wilson et al, 2009)

36. Lower quality communication
• Instead of actually talking with one another, SNS
like Facebook provide teens with the ability to
„like‟ each others posts and photos
▫ This provides the illusion that they are keeping in
touch, but in reality they are not actually
communicating with one another

37. Lower quality communication
• Fast-paced environment
▫ The main purpose of SNS is to allow you to stay
connected to others, but it is done in a relatively
fast pace on the Internet
▫ This may make it more difficult to have
serious, in-depth conversations
▫ Teens may not want to reveal too much in writing
for fear that it may end up in the wrong hands
later down the line, causing them distress

38. Verdict?

39. Verdict?
• Original thesis statement:
▫ “Is spending time on SNS healthy for the
development of adolescent peer relationships?”
• The author believes that social network sites do
in fact provide a beneficial environment for the
development of close peer relationships during
adolescence

40. Verdict?
• The pros of SNS far out weigh the cons in
regards to the healthy development of
relationships during adolescence
▫ It allows for communication to occur, even when
teens are separated physically
▫ Those who suffer from social anxiety are able to
communicate with others and form meaningful
friendships
▫ Sexual victimization and cyberbullying are not as
commonplace on SNS as the media may lead us to
believe

41. Do you agree?

42. Bibliography
• Ahn, J. (2011). The effect of social network sites on adolescents‟ social and academic
. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology, 62(8), 1435-1445.
• Ahn, J. (2012): Teenagers‟ Experiences With Social Network Sites: Relationships to
Bridging and Bonding
• Social Capital, The Information Society: An International Journal, 28:2, 99-109
• Boyd, D., & Ellison, N. (2008). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and
Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
• Fanalyzer. (2013). Demographics date - Facebook UK. Fanalyzer. Retrieved April
28, 2013, from www.fanalyzer.uk/demographics.html
• O'Keeffe, G. S. (2011). The impact of social media on children, adolescents and
families. American Academy of Pediatrics, 127, 800-805.

43. Bibliography (continued)
• Smith, P. K., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., Fisher, S., Russell, S., & Tippett, N. (2008).
Cyberbullying: Its Nature And Impact In Secondary School Pupils.Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(4), 376-385.
• Subrahmanyam, K., Reich, S., Waechter, N., & Espinoza, G. (2008). Online And Offline
Social Networks: Use Of Social Networking Sites By Emerging Adults. Journal of Applied
Developmental Psychology, 29(6), 420-433.
• Subrahmanyam., & Greenfield. (2008). Online Communication And Adolescent
Relationships. The Future of Children,18(1), 119-146.
• Wilson, C., Boe, B., Sala, A., Puttaswamy, K., & Zhao, B. (2009). User interactions in
social networks and their implications . Computer Science Department, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 14.
• Ybarra, M. L., & Mitchell, K. J. (2008). How Risky Are Social Networking Sites? A
Comparison Of Places Online Where Youth Sexual Solicitation And Harassment
Occurs. Pediatrics, 121(2), e350-e357.