Growing Up Wired: Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Psychosocial Development

Abstract

Since the advent of SNS technologies, adolescents' use of these technologies has expanded and is now a primary way of communicating with and acquiring information about others in their social network. Overall, adolescents and young adults’ stated motivations for using SNSs are quite similar to more traditional forms of communication—to stay in touch with friends, make plans, get to know people better, and present oneself to others. We begin with a summary of theories that describe the role of SNSs in adolescents’ interpersonal relationships, as well as common methodologies used in this field of research thus far. Then, with the social changes that occur throughout adolescence as a backdrop, we address the ways in which SNSs intersect with key tasks of adolescent psychosocial development, specifically peer affiliation and friendship quality, as well as identity development. Evidence suggests that SNSs differentially relate to adolescents’ social connectivity and identity development, with sociability, self-esteem, and nature of SNS feedback as important potential moderators. We synthesize current findings, highlight unanswered questions, and recommend both methodological and theoretical directions for future research.

Gender (In)Consistent Communication via Social Media and Hireability: An Exploratory Study

“…It is standard practice to include accurate, recent images of one's self on profile pages, and SNS typically enable users to disclose their hometown, relationship status, and a range of entertainment preferences. Despite this, there is evidence that the Internet (i.e., SNS) remains an exploration ground, where users feel less constrained and therefore can use it to discover and negotiate their true identity [24].…”

Possible Effects of Internet Use on Cognitive Development in Adolescence

“…Given the prevalence of Internet use, a common concern of parents and policy makers is how online social interactions could impact adolescent social cognitive development. Early studies have reported positive social outcomes for adolescents who use the Internet to communicate with individuals known offline (Valken-burg & Peter, 2009), and recent studies looking at social networking site use report largely the same (Spies Shapiro & Margolin, 2014). Indeed, communicating through digital means is still able to elicit feelings of bonding through the use of text-based cues like typed laughter (Sherman et al, 2013), and perhaps increased use social networking sites allows for more adept digital communication of social nuances, leading to increased overall social competence (Tsitsika et al, 2014;Yang & Brown, 2013).…”

“…One of the most common online activities for adolescents is communicating with others, primarily individuals known offline (Reich et al, 2012). Use of social networking sites is associated with greater feelings of peer affiliation (Spies Shapiro & Margolin, 2014), and adolescents who use social networking sites report less peer-related loneliness than non-users (Teppers, Luyckx, Klimstra, & Goossens, 2014), suggesting that adolescents who use social networking sites are developing the necessary social skills to have healthy peer relationships. Indeed, older adolescents who used social networking sites more than 2 hours a day reported higher social competence than older adolescents who used these sites less (Tsitsika et al, 2014).…”

“…For example, early reviews examining the relationship between Internet use and social development focused on evidence from investigations of chat room or instant messaging activities (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008;Valkenburg & Peter, 2009), whereas more recent reviews have focused on evidence from investigations of social media use (Spies Shapiro & Margolin, 2014;Wu, Outley, Matarrita-Cascante, & Murphrey, 2015). While both older and newer reviews on this topic suggest that online behaviors involving offline friends have the capability of strengthening relationships during adolescence, newer reviews were able to integrate more evidence to suggest baseline social skills increase the chance for adolescents to reap the benefits of social media use (Spies Shapiro & Margolin, 2014). Given the lack of older reviews on the topic of how Internet use affects cognitive development, the results of the current review could not be integrated into previous syntheses of the literature.…”

Gender stereotypes in Facebook profiles: Are women more female online?

“…Further, these platforms influence the exploration and formation of personal and social identity (Spies Shapiro & Margolin, 2014), allowing users to construct an online identity by strategically choosing what to disclose to those who might view their profiles and how to make these disclosures (Walther, 2007), while at the same time affording them with the opportunity to participate in social comparison and express aspects of the ideal-self (Manago, Graham, Greenfield, & Salimkhan, 2008), especially in the case of Facebook (Caers et al, 2013;Wilson, Gosling, & Graham, 2012). Adolescents and young adults use these sites to experiment with different selves in a process of creation of a kind of ideal self that may represent the person they would like to be (Zhao, Grasmuck, & Martin, 2008) or who they think they should be according to social norms (Back et al, 2010;Manago et al, 2008).…”