Social networking sites have become increasingly popular among teenagers since the 2000s. These sites allow teenagers to create profiles, connect with friends, and engage in online social interaction. While some argue that social media simply provides another venue for existing teenage interests like identity exploration and partner selection, others warn that aspects of online communication like persistence and invisible audiences can intensify risks like bullying. Overall, research suggests that social networking does not fundamentally change teenage behavior but may amplify existing social issues in online spaces.

1. Growing up Digital:
The impact of social networking
on teenage socialization

2. What is social networking anyways?
Social networking sites are a type of virtual community.
1970s - electronic bulletin board systems where people
with computers could post messages to each other and
exchange documents.
1991 - advent of the World Wide Web marked a pivotal
change in the way people relate to one another.
2000 - the first modern social networking sites, chat
rooms, and blogs began to pop up online.

3. Dating sites - for the first time, users were able to create
profiles for themselves and search for potential partners
through a network of members.
Before long, hundreds of social media sites began to
emerge online, such as ICQ, Friendster, Naptster and
High5.
2003 - MySpace - allowed users to completely customize
the images and information on their profiles.
2008 - Facebook surpassed MySpace as the most popular
social networking site and its growth shows no signs of
slowing (Cameron, 2009).

4. How does it all work?
Social networks are based around profiles, which offer
descriptions of each member. In addition to text, images,
and video created by the member, the profile also
contains comments from other members and a public list
of the people that one identifies as “Friends” within the
network (Boyd, 2008).
“Friending” - the process of sharing personal
information with others. Members are asked to invite
their friends to the site by supplying their email
addresses or look at other people’s profiles and add
those people to their list of Friends.

5. Although many sites include common features, the
practices that take place through the use of the most
prevalent three – profiles, friends, and comments –
differentiate social network sites from other types of
computer-mediated communication. Furthermore, what
makes these three practices significant for consideration
is that they take place in public: Friends are publicly
articulated, profiles are publicly viewed, and comments
are publicly visible. (Boyd, 2008)

6. Why do teenagers love it?
The key to unlocking the immense attraction teenagers
have to social networking sites can potentially be found
in understanding what their needs are during this
transitional phase in their lives.
“a time of visible and invisible “becoming” when the
biological changes of puberty, emergent sexuality,
transitions to more adult roles, and the formation of
significant peer relationships intersect.”(Sandra
Webber, 2008)

7. Erik Erikson - identified eight stages of fundamental
psychological conflict. In order to progress from one
stage to the next, you must successfully resolve each
conflict. For teenagers, the conflict is between
“identity” and “role confusion”.
James Marcia - defines identity as “constructed rather
than societally imposed”
Production of their Facebook or MySpace profile
provides young people with diverse means of
constructing or fashioning their identities through the
use of photos, video, text and groups.

8. How do they socialize?
20th century - teenagers began to live their lives
independent of their parents.
Mandatory education - the dramatic rise in high school
enrollment was the single most important factor in
creating teenage culture.
The desire to fit it is of vital importance to teenagers.
They equate being part of a particular social group with
social status, personal accomplishments, and a general
sense of comfort and well-being

9. Palfrey and Gasser - current generation of young
people have a “24/7 network that blends the human
with the technical to a degree we haven’t experienced
before; and it is transforming human relationships and
identity development in fundamental ways.”

10. Does social networking change this?
Kaveri Subrahmanyam - study to examine several
different online forums to determine whether teenage
behaviour changes in the online space.
In-depth analysis of teenage interaction online revealed
three important themes: identity, sexual exploration,
and partner selection.
Research also indicates that these same themes are
important factors facing adolescents in real life.
Results: New behaviours were not being created;
instead it appeared that that online world may serve as a
stage for playing out the social issues from the offline
world. However, these behaviours were enacted with
stronger intensity compared to the real world.

11. What are the risks?
Danah Boyd - key factors that differentiate the online and
offline worlds:
Persistence - anything that is said in the online space
does not immediately disappear; rather in persists over
time.
Replicability - personal information, conversations, video
and pictures can be copied and shared across an entire
social network, making it nearly impossible to establish
where they originated.
Invisible audiences - without a direct audience,
teenagers become less self-conscious and more apt to
say and do things they wouldn’t in real life.

12. Together, these factors provide the perfect opportunity for
bullying to escalate in a way that it is unlikely to in face-to-
face confrontation.
The story of Ryan Hallagan
Many teenagers no longer have the luxury of seeking
refuge from the bullies by leaving the geographical space
where the harassment is taking place. With cell phones
and computers, the bullies are with them all the time.

13. Conclusion
Based on relevant existing research, it appears that while
social networking sites do not fundamentally alter
teenage social behaviour, they do present a venue where
social problems, such as bullying, can be exacerbated.

14. Thanks for listening.
TTYL!