This document discusses how teens use social media and its impacts. It notes that teens primarily use sites like Facebook to connect with friends both new and old, keep in touch, and feel part of a group. While social media allows teens to bond and find support, it can also increase social pressures around friending people and maintaining an online image. The document explores both the pros and cons of teen social media use and questions whether these sites are overall healthy or doing more harm through increased drama, gossip, and potential for bullying.

1. Media and Friendship
By Roux Lobozzo

2. Teens and Friendships
Online
Old are the days of quiet contemplation for
youths, now most of their time is taken up by
the online activities, the most popular being
Facebook. This website gives a new term for
the name friend. Friend is no longer a close
confidant or a new acquaintance, it could be a
stranger you passed in the hall, or a classmate
in school, you have never said hello to.

3. How Teens Use Media
• Teens use media in a way to connect with
friends
• Keep in contact with new friends
• Make bonds with people
• Be apart of a group
• Build identities

4. How Teens Use Media
• Access information about peers or other
groups
• Make plans
• Hang out online

5. FACEBOOK and
MYSPACE
• These sites allow kids to interact on a whole
new level
• Kids that feel ostracized can find groups that
make them feel connected
• Teens use these sites for social support where
they can be anonymous
• Teens use these sites to show their status, by
pictures, relationships, and tastes

6. Photobucket and
Facebook
• This program is used to document teens lives
• Share photos with others
• Post photos onto their media web pages
• Depict their lives in the way they want

7. Photobucket

8. Social Pressure and
Media Etiquette
• Teens feel pressure to accept people as friends
whether they are close friends or not
• There is pressure to have a number of online
friends
• Teens feel pressure to maintain an “image”
• Teens feel bad if they delete a friend
• You do not reject a friend you “know”

9. Friend Requests

10. Pros and Cons
• There can be many pros to these media
websites, allowing teens to connect with one
another in a healthy way and manage
relationships
• Be apart of a group
• Receive support through different outlets
• Find new friends that you share hobbies with

11. Cons to Media Use
• Teens feel as if gossip travels faster
• Teens feel bullied by the gossip
• Although rare there are sexual predators looking for young teens
• Teens feel stalked and can stalk others
• Some teens can feel rejected by the friending process
• Drama seems more present and can carry on outside of school
• Teens are always “on”

12. Self-esteem
• Many teens today find these sites as a way to
comfort themselves or improve their self esteem
• Many times teens will find confirmation in the
number of online friends they have or that they
have a certain number of posts on their page
• Teens will often post pictures that depict them in
a certain way to make them look and feel
attractive

13. Confirmation
• Teens will often search new friends as a way to
find more about them
• Teens can also find friends with their same
hobbies and interests
• Teens find these media websites as a way to feel
apart of something

14. Discussion
• Are media websites healthy?
• Are teens worried too much about their media image
then their one in reality?
• How do teens that have these websites differ from
those who do not?
• Is Facebook addictive?
• Is cyber bullying worse than physical bullying?
• While there is much to be offered from these websites
are they doing more harm than good?