Teenagers have become highly connected through social media and mobile phones. This has led to a shift where teens now socialize online rather than in person. While social media allows for constant connection and friendship maintenance across distances, it can also hinder identity development if too much is shared. It has also given rise to issues like cyberbullying. However, social media overall helps teens develop friendships and find communities of interest.

1. Hanging Out, Messing Around and
Geeking Out (Boyd)
Morgan Brownlee
July 24, 2012

2. Friendship
With the uproar and popularity of mobile phones and social media
websites like Myspace, Twitter and Facebook, it has become an
important part of a teenagers’ life. Everywhere we look, everyone has a
mobile phone.

3. Being online = Being cool.
Teenagers feel like they have to be connected online in order to be
considered cool or popular. If you’re not online, then you don’t exist.

4. Social Media Craze
Teens have become addicted to the social media world. They feel
like they don’t exist unless they are sharing their private lives with
the public which can hinder their identity if too much is shared
online.

5. The shift in teen sociability
There has been a shift from kids hanging out in the mall, streets or
school to them hanging out online. Teens no longer have face to face
time with friends because they are online at home. Teens are more
connected than ever before do the social media websites to help
them make and maintain friendships.

6. Maintaining Friendships
Social media and mobile phones allows everyone to connect on the
same level and all times. This is good, but also can be bad because
teens don’t talk face to face as much or are on the cellphone at
inappropriate times.

7. Peers and Friendship
Media sites have allowed kids to interact outside of the typical
physical space. These sites have heightened youth culture and
identity and have allowed intergenerational interest groups and
blurred the line of intimacy among peers.

8. Peers and Friendship cont.
Teenagers use online sites and social media for more reasons than
just communication. It allows them to share information, videos, and
pictures. I think this can be a good source to give more intimacy to
people you don’t always see in person.

9. Peers and Friendship cont.
Online social networking sites have almost replaced the face to face
interaction and socializing with teens like gossiping, sharing
information and finding identity.

10. Making Friends
Social media sites not only allow people to meet new people, but
they reinforce friendships, groups and connections no matter the
time or location. For example, Facebook lets teens meet and stay
connected to friends across seas and in different time zones.

11. Performing Friendship
There are many applications within the social media outlets that
allow teens to keep all of their friends contact information in order.
These include online address books, buddy list, and accepting friend
request. Even mobile carriers have this option such as T-mobile
having “My Favs.”

12. Friendship Hierarchies
In addition to the applications to keep friend’s information in order
there are other applications that give teens the option of ranking
their friends. For example, Myspace has “Top Friends” which allows
people to rank who their best friends are.

13. Friendship Hierarchies cont.
In Facebook, the friend request allows one to accept or reject the other’s
friendship on Facebook. By rejecting the request, that person cannot access
your wall and information. Many teens accept most friend requests to avoid
offending peers who may think they have a strong friendship and just to
accept them to have as many friends as possible.
Which brings in the question...

14. Status, Attention and Drama
Teens tend to struggle of status among their peers and sometimes
the social media outlets can have a negative affect on them because
most teens have insecurities with friendship and popularity.

15. Status, Attention, and Drama cont.
Some teens will try to increase their popularity at the expense of
other people. This is done by spreading online rumors, gossiping, and
stalking. An example of this is updating your status on Facebook
about the person one is targeting for everyone to see. This can be
difficult to deal with because the targeted person has no control of
the other person.

16. Status, Attention, and Drama cont.
With all the social media comes the up and coming cyber bullying. It
has become easy for teens to bully each other online than in person.
It is simple to get someone’s phone number and send a mean text or
to find them on Facebook and post something negative on their wall.

17. Conclusion
I think that all of the social media outlets are good to have in order to
keep in touch with your friends, especially if you don’t get to see
them due to distance, time, or other circumstances. However, like
with everything in the world, it does have its downsides, most of
which can be out of our control.

18. Conclusion cont.
Social media helps teens in their friendship practices. Unfortunately, with all
of the many outlets it can me difficult for teens to keep up everything. By
having all of the social media options, it allows teens to develop their
identity different from that of say what their parents did when then were
teens.

19. Conclusion
“Teens value social media because they help them build,
maintain, and develop friendships with peers. “ (Boyd)