Social Networks & Teens
Millions of teens participate in social networks. According to the 1997 Pew Research report Teens and Social Media, 93 percent of teens are active online. Fifty-five percent have created a profile on a social networking site. What are teens doing on these sites? Why are they spending so much time connecting with others online?
HANGING OUT MOVES ONLINE
Ask teens what they do on social networking sites and chances are their answer will be "just hang out." In fact, hanging out with friends is nothing new to generations of teenagers. Parents of today's teens remember gathering with friends at the local mall or diner. This behavior is a normal part of adolescents becoming adults. Socializing with friends teaches teens how to interact with others. They learn society's norms and rules. According to researcher Danah Boyd, hanging out is "how youth get socialized into peer groups. Hanging out amongst friends allows teens to build relationships and stay connected."1
Past generations enjoyed hours after school to gather with friends. Today's teens find themselves with less time and fewer opportunities to hang out. Teens fill their schedules with sports practices, theater rehearsals, extra study sessions, or other activities. The physical space where they can hang out has also changed. Many public places such as the mall and local parks have added strict rules to limit unsupervised teens on-site. With less time and opportunity available for hanging out, teens have turned to the Web.
The Web has become a virtual hangout. It is a place to connect with friends after school. On the Web, teens can interact away from parents. David Huffaker, a researcher of online social behavior at Northwestern University, wrote in an academic paper that "these activities are important for identity exploration, which is one of the principal tasks of adolescence."2
FULFILLING ADOLESCENT NEEDS
Teenagers struggle daily to maneuver the road to adulthood. Along the way, they face several
HANGING OUT MOVES ONLINE
Ask teens what they do on social networking sites and chances are their answer will be "just hang out." In fact, hanging out with friends is nothing new to generations of teenagers. Parents of today's teens remember gathering with friends at the local mall or diner. This behavior is a normal part of adolescents becoming adults. Socializing with friends teaches teens how to interact with others. They learn society's norms and rules. According to researcher Danah Boyd, hanging out is "how youth get socialized into peer groups. Hanging out amongst friends allows teens to build relationships and stay connected."1
Past generations enjoyed hours after school to gather with friends. Today's teens find themselves with less time and fewer opportunities to hang out. Teens fill their schedules with sports practices, theater rehearsals, extra study sessions, or other activities. The physical space where they can hang out has also changed. Many public places such as the mall and local parks have added strict rules to limit unsupervised teens on-site. With less time and opportunity available for hanging out, teens have turned to the Web.
The Web has become a virtual hangout. It is a place to connect with friends after school. On the Web, teens can interact away from parents. David Huffaker, a researcher of online social behavior at Northwestern University, wrote in an academic paper that "these activities are important for identity exploration, which is one of the principal tasks of adolescence."2
FULFILLING ADOLESCENT NEEDS
Teenagers struggle daily to maneuver the road to adulthood. Along the way, they face several