Online communication and adolescent relationships

Submitted by: Suzanna Smith, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof.

Subrahmanyam, K. & Greenfield, P." Online communication and adolescent relationships.”  Future of Children, 18(1), 119-146, www.futureofchildren.org

Introduction

A recent article appearing in the journal series, Future of Children confirms that adolescents are “heavy users” of “communication oriented Internet sites, such as blogs, social networking, and sites for sharing photos and videos” (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008, p. 119). The journal article looks at how a variety of media affect relationships with friends and family. Here we’ll focus on how social networking affects adolescent relationships with their friends and their families.

Method

The article discussed here is an extensive and up-to-date literature review that summarizes the existing literature on adolescents, electronic media, and friendships.

Main Ideas

The results are summarized below based on the main findings of the article.

  • Teens use social networking to connect with friends.

Adolescents usually use social networking sites to interact with friends from their offline world, and to check out possible new friendships. Girls in particular use social networking to reinforce their existing friendships, whereas “boys are more likely to use them to flirt and make new friends” (p. 125). Mostly teens believe that “time online doesn’t take away from time spent with friends” (p. 126). And, nearly half think that the Internet has improved their friendships.

 

  • Teens need to continue to exercise caution about stranger interactions.

Generally speaking the Internet appears to be less risky than it was during its early years and “reports of unwanted sexual solicitation and harassment have declined” (p. 134). Users do have control over how public or private their entries or profiles are and with whom they interact on social networking sites. Also, networking sites have put some controls in place to try to protect younger users. MySpace users may be at least somewhat cautions; 40% “of profiles were private” (p. 123).  Nevertheless, in 2006, 40% of 14-22 year olds using social networking sites such as MySpace had been contacted online by a stranger, confirming that “adolescents may…connect with people who are not part of their offline lives” (p. 130). It’s not clear how many of these result in relationships or face-to-face meetings, but one national survey found that this happened only “occasionally” (p. 131). Earlier research suggested that at risk or troubled youth are more likely to develop online relationships with strangers.

 

  • Teens need to watch out for bullying.

Even though much online communication can be positive, electronic media can also be used to send bullying and threatening messages, called “cyberbullying.” This takes place predominantly through Instant Messaging, emails and text messaging, and to a lesser extent on chat rooms and blogs, and that the victim usually knows the bully. A large-scale Internet survey of teens found that “90 percent of the sample did not tell an adult, including parents, about cyberbullying” (p. 137).

 

  • Racial slurs and hate sites are common and may target teens.

The anonymity of online interactions may lower controls over racist remarks. This paper reported that an individual had a 59% chance of being exposed to slurs about racial and ethnic groups in unmonitored chat rooms (p. 133) and a 19% chance in monitored chats. This article comments: “Even a frequency of one in five Internet sessions seems an extremely high rate of racist remarks” (p. 134). Much racist behavior occurs on hate sites targeted to children and teens.

 

  • Teens use the internet to find romance and sexual information and relationships.

Teens use media to find and solidify romantic relationships. It may feel safer to teens generally and to young women in particular to initiate relationships in chat rooms, or to check out a possible dating partner on a social networking site. Teens also use the internet to get information about sexuality and health information and this may be especially helpful for youth who do not feel comfortable talking to someone in person about sensitive topics.  Dangers, as discussed above, include exposure to pornography (deliberate or accidental), and unwanted sexual harassment.

 

  • Teen’s online media use may interfere with family time and cause family conflict.

A recent study found that “nearly one in three parents felt that the time their teen spent on MySpace interfered with family time” (p. 135) and when teens spent more than two hours a day online, about half of parents felt that it interfered. However, teens who spent a lot of time on MySpace “felt that they were getting less support from their parents” (p. 135), suggesting that parents may not be available. Another study found that multitasking youth tended to ignore a parent coming home at the end of the day and “parents had a hard time penetrating their children’s world and often retreated” (p. 135).  Additionally, qualitative findings suggest that “social networking sites such as MySpace are causing serious parent-child conflicts and loss of parental control” (p. 138).

 

  • Parents don’t know much about teens’ Internet use or don’t set limits. 

One survey of parent and teen pairs found that “nearly half of the parents almost never looked at their teens’ MySpace profile and a third had never seen it” (p. 137). Another study found that only a third of parents put limits on MySpace use. On the other hand, teens may limit parental access to parts of their online accounts, or even set up separate accounts for their parents to view. Many teens have easy access to the Internet without parents’ knowledge: About half of parents [in one study] allowed their adolescents to access the Internet in their bedrooms and “only a quarter put limits on computer use” (p. 137). However, authoritative parents were more likely to have seen their teens’ MySpace page and to have set limits, and they were less likely to allow a computer in the bedroom, than are parents who use other parenting styles. 

Implications for Extension Programs

 

Extension educators can provide information to parents about the following steps they can take to help their teens develop healthy online communication.

  • Monitor and set limits on Internet use. Talk with your teen about rules for Internet use and be consistent in following these rules. It will be easier to set limits before a teen actually starts using social networking sites. Experts suggest that monitoring is best done by using Internet software to block, monitor or filter teens’ access to different types of content.1

 

  • Help keep your teens safe.  Electronic communication is the major way that today’s youth communicate (p. 136) and this is unlikely to change. To help them stay safe, expect them to use the privacy controls on social networking sites and never to post personal information or provocative photos. Help them learn caution, especially when interacting with strangers. 

 

  • Keep the lines of communication open. If teens are going to be able to talk about some of the more sensitive situations they run into on the Internet (e.g., racism, sexism, sexual advances, or bullying), they will need to know that they can trust you to listen.

           

Conclusions

Today’s teens build relationships through online communication. In many ways, we don’t understand much about adolescent Internet use, and a number of questions need to be answered through research. Nevertheless, there is good reason to believe that teen online communication presents many new challenges for families.  Parents can take certain steps to ensure teen safety while also respecting their need to explore their identities and learn decision making skills. 

 

Note

Some examples of limits include: no Internet after 9 p.m.; certain sites off limits; private postings only and no provocative pictures; parent access to personal sites; no computer use in the bedroom. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends not more than two hours per day of screen time. Although this might not be possible for teens doing research for school projects, parents will want to consider limiting social time on the Internet.