Transformation of Adolescent Peer Relations in the Social Media Context: Part 1—A Theoretical Framework and Application to Dyadic Peer Relationships

Abstract

Investigators have long recognized that adolescents' peer experiences provide a crucial context for the acquisition of developmental competencies, as well as potential risks for a range of adjustment difficulties. However, recent years have seen an exponential increase in adolescents' adoption of social media tools, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of adolescent peer interactions. Although research has begun to examine social media use among adolescents, researchers have lacked a unifying framework for understanding the impact of social media on adolescents' peer experiences. This paper represents Part 1 of a two-part theoretical review, in which we offer a transformation framework to integrate interdisciplinary social media scholarship and guide future work on social media use and peer relations from a theory-driven perspective. We draw on prior conceptualizations of social media as a distinct interpersonal context and apply this understanding to adolescents' peer experiences, outlining features of social media with particular relevance to adolescent peer relations. We argue that social media transforms adolescent peer relationships in five key ways: by changing the frequency or immediacy of experiences, amplifying experiences and demands, altering the qualitative nature of interactions, facilitating new opportunities for compensatory behaviors, and creating entirely novel behaviors. We offer an illustration of the transformation framework applied to adolescents' dyadic friendship processes (i.e., experiences typically occurring between two individuals), reviewing existing evidence and offering theoretical implications. Overall, the transformation framework represents a departure from the prevailing approaches of prior peer relations work and a new model for understanding peer relations in the social media context.

The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health

“…Important developmental tasks of adolescence include the establishment of intimate peer relationships, increasing independence from adults, and the exploration of identity [9]. Social media offers a prime context for navigating these tasks in new, increasingly complex ways: peers are constantly available, personal information is displayed publicly and permanently, and quantifiable peer feedback is instantaneously provided in the form of "likes" and "views" [10].…”

“…Adolescents' peer experiences play a critical role in the onset and maintenance of psychopathology. Within the social media environment, peer interactions can occur with increased frequency, immediacy, and intensity [10]. Specific online peer experiences have been identified in prior work as potential risk factors for mental health concerns.…”

Commentary: An updated agenda for the study of digital media use and adolescent development – future directions following Odgers & Jensen (2020)

“…Psychosocial factors also may change the potential effects of digital media use on psychological adjustment. For instance, our own work suggested that among low social status teens, but not among those with average or high levels of status, online social comparison (or status seeking) creates unique vulnerabilities for low self‐image, social distress, and perhaps even online harassment (see Nesi et al, ). Unfortunately, too few studies offer a thorough examination of how demographic or psychological risk factors may transact with the affordances of digital environments to create both adaptive and maladaptive social experiences online.…”

Longitudinal association between social media use and psychological distress among adolescents

“…Social media plays a role in adolescent social life and explaining how social media use can possibly influence something as complex as mental health requires a holistic theoretical framework. The transformation framework (Nesi et al, 2018a(Nesi et al, , 2018b proposes that the unique context of social media fundamentally transforms adolescents' peer experiences across multiple domains. For example, through what is referred to as asynchronicity or the time that passes between responses in a dialogue online, adolescents can carefully select their words and engage in many conversations at the same time, as well as decide how to present themselves.…”