Connecting developmental constructions to the internet: Identity presentation and sexual exploration in online teen chat rooms.

Abstract

The authors examined the online construction of identity and sexuality in a large sample of conversations from monitored and unmonitored teen chat rooms. More than half of the 583 participants (identified by a distinct screen name) communicated identity information, most frequently gender. In this way, participants compensated for the text-based chat environment by providing information about themselves that would be visible and obvious in face-to-face communication. Sexual themes constituted 5% of all utterances (1 sexual comment per minute); bad or obscene language constituted 3% of the sample (1 obscenity every 2 minutes). Participants who self-identified as female produced more implicit sexual communication, participants who self-identified as male produced more explicit sexual communication. The protected environment of monitored chat (hosts who enforce basic behavioral rules) contained an environment with less explicit sexuality and fewer obscenities than the freer environment of unmonitored chat. These differences were attributable both to the monitoring process itself and to the differing populations attracted to each type of chat room (monitored: more participants self-identified as younger and female; unmonitored: more participants self-identified as older and male).

Facebook Usage among Arabic College Students: Preliminary Findings on Gender Differences

“…Research in developmental psychology has demonstrated that as Internet becomes a main social environment for most people, it becomes an essential arena for identity experimentation and exploration, playing an important role in adolescent development [13]. Same theories are also applicable to Arab youth.…”

Social anxiety moderates the links between excessive chatting and compulsive Internet use

“…A growing body of research indicates that adolescents consider online communication to be a central part of their everyday social lives, and it is used both to acquire new as well as to retain current social relationships (Subrahmanyam et al, 2006;Wolak et al, 2003). The social compensation hypothesis states that some people communicate online because establishing relationships with others is more difficult face-to-face compared to online, due to for example greater anonymity or less perceived social risk (Schneider & Amichai-Hamburger, 2010).…”

“…Online communication, defined as the frequency, intensity, and rate with which adolescents use the Internet for communicating with others, seems highly important in adolescents' everyday social lives, and they use it to form new as well as to maintain current relationships (Subrahmanyam, Smahel, & Greenfield, 2006;Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2003). Online communication is a multidimensional concept, however, and one way of understanding it is distinguishing between communication that may or may not require an immediate response, regardless of platform.…”

Adolescents’ Online And Offline Identity: A Study On Self-Representation

“…Since the internet can be considered as a very powerful means of expression of the self, many adolescents nowadays reveal personal information, such as age, gender, orientations (Subrahmanyam, Smahel, & Greenfield, 2006). However, the process of identity formation can be unstable and tumultuous and adolescents can shift from one web-based identity to another very rapidly and unpredictably.…”