Internet and Socialization: How Internet use influences online and offline relationships

Objectives. According to the literature, it is not yet clear whether the digital natives' use of Internet represents a risk or a resource. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between Internet use and the emotional and social offline dynamics. Specifically, we hypothesised that high versus low problematic use of internet was associated with students’ social adjustment. We expected to find that students with high problematic use of internet show more social, behavioural, and emotional problems than students with low problematic use of internet. Material and methods. Participants were 177 students from 4 middle schools in Central Italy, aged 11 to 15 (50% females). Five questionnaires were administered: the Child Behavior CheckList (CBCL) to measure social, emotional and behavioural problems, the Crozier Shyness Questionnaire to measure shyness and the UCLA Loneliness Scale to measure loneliness. For internet misuse we used the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale and 3 questions to assess activities and time spent on the internet. Results. The higher the preference for online interactions of the Internet adopted by students to regulate mood, the higher the internalization problems recorded. Moreover, the higher preference for online social interactions adopted by students and the negative outcomes due to the Internet use, the higher the externalization problems displayed. Conclusions. Consistently with the literature our results seem to confirm the negative effect of the internet misuse on socio-emotional features. We discuss the relationship between internet use (related to mood regulation, negative social consequences and preference for online interactions) and social-emotional adjustmen

Social network profiles as information sources for adolescents' offline relations

This paper presents the results of a study concerning the use of online profile pages by adolescents to know more about “offline” friends and acquaintances. Previous research has indicated that social networking sites (SNSs) are used to gather information on new online contacts. However, several studies have demonstrated a substantial overlap between offline and online social networks. Hence, we question whether online connections are meaningful in gathering information on offline friends and acquaintances. First, the results indicate that a combination of passive uncertainty reduction (monitoring a target’s profile) and interactive uncertainty reduction (communication through the target’s profile) explains a considerable amount of variance in the level of uncertainty about both friends and acquaintances. More specifically, adolescents generally get to know much more about their acquaintances. Second, the results of online uncertainty reduction positively affect the degree of self-disclosure, which is imperative in building a solid friend relation. Furthermore, we find that uncertainty reduction strategies positively mediate the effect of social anxiety on the level of certainty about friends. This implies that socially anxious teenagers benefit from SNSs by getting the conditions right to build a more solid relation with their friends. Hence, we conclude that SNSs play a substantial role in today’s adolescents’ everyday interpersonal communication

Social network profiles as information sources for adolescents' offline relations

This paper presents the results of a study concerning the use of profile pages by adolescents to get to know more about offline friends and acquaintances. Previous research has indicated that social network sites are used to gather information on new online contacts. However, several studies have demonstrated a substantial overlap between offline and online social networks. Hence, we question whether online profiles are meaningful in gathering information on these 'offline' friends and acquaintances. The results indicate that the combination of passive uncertainty reduction (monitoring a profile) and interactive uncertainty reduction (communication through a profile) explains certainty about both friends and acquaintances. Second, it shows that the results of online uncertainty reduction positively affect self-disclosure, which is imperative in building a solid friend relation. Furthermore, we find that uncertainty reduction strategies positively mediate the effect of social anxiety on the level of certainty about friends

Online Predators: Myth versus Reality

Media stories about “online predators” who use the Internet to gain access to young victims often give inaccurate impressions of Internet-initiated sex crimes. Most such crimes involve adult men who use the Internet to meet and seduce adolescents into sexual encounters. Most offenders are open about their ages and sexual motivations. Most are charged with statutory rape (i.e., nonforcible sexual activity with victims who are too young to consent). Internet-initiated sex crimes account for a salient but small proportion of all statutory rape offenses and a relatively low number of the sexual offenses committed against minors overall. Victims are often at-risk youths who have previously been abused or have problems in school or at home. Prevention strategies should be developmentally appropriate, target youths directly, acknowledge normal adolescent interests in romance and sex, and provide adolescents with awareness and avoidance skills

Online and Offline Friendship Among Italian Adolescent Girls

Background: There is still a question of whether online friendship predicts changes in face-to-face friendship (Reduction Hypothesis) or face-to-face friendship predicts changes in online friendship (Compensation Hypothesis) during adolescence.Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare these two hypotheses to determine which comes first: online friendship or offline friendship.Method: Eighty adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 19 years (mean, 16.07 years; standard deviation, 1.28 years) on a non-traditional school track completed self-report questionnaires. Two wave longitudinal models were tested with the use of cross-lagged analysis to compare the hypotheses.Results: Analysis showed that negative face-to-face friendship quality predicted online friendship but that the opposite was not true.Conclusions: The study’s findings underlined the compensation role of online friendship for girls with poor or unsatisfactory offline social worlds. The implications of this information and suggestions for clinicians and professionals to use to enhance adolescent social skills and to promote appropriate use of the Internet will be discussed

Examining Gender Differences in Self-disclosure on Facebook Versus Face-to-Face

Previous studies have shown that women disclose to their close friends more often than men. However, no study has compared the intimacy of their disclosures across different media and different relationship types. The purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in self-disclosure between Facebook friends and between face-to-face friends.  One hundred ninety-seven college women and 120 college men in this study were asked to report their levels of self-disclosure with three types of friends: an exclusive Facebook friend, an exclusive face-to-face friend, and a recently added Facebook friend. One-way MANOVA was used to test the hypothesis that women will self-disclose to their Facebook and face-to-face friends more than men. Results provided partial support for the hypothesis. Women disclosed to their exclusive face-to-face friends and exclusive Facebook friends more than men; however, men had more intimate discussions with their recently added Facebook friends than women did. Both men and women disclosed more to their exclusive face-to-face friends than to exclusive Facebook friends.  Overall, these findings suggest that, regardless of the medium, both genders disclose more to the person they consider more intimate

Determinants Of The Successful Usage Of A Firm’s Sns Page

This research-in-progress paper aims to investigate the determinants for the successful usage of social network services (SNS) from the perspective of a firm. A new type of commercial community operated by a firm in public SNS is defined as a firm’s SNS page and the success of encouraging users’ adoption and continued usage of a firm’s SNS page is further defined as SNS success. Based on solid theoretical foundation of communicative ecology theory, a conceptual research model of SNS success is proposed. It is composed of the content quality, service quality, and social interaction quality as antecedents. Among these elements, social interaction quality is newly developed to reflect the value of interaction among community members as a second-order variable which consists of exchange information, social support, and friendship. In addition, incentives and the network size are examined as moderating variables. After building the research model and hypotheses, the measurement scales and the results of a pilot study to verify the items are described. At the end of the paper, the conclusion and the expected contribution are discussed

Length Matters: Message Metrics that Result in Higher Levels of Perceived Partner Responsiveness and Changes in Intimacy as Friends Communicate through Social Network Sites

This study focuses on how young adults enact their relationships in public through self-disclosing interactions on Facebook.  A Facebook self-disclosure status update, along with as many as three corresponding response comments, was copied by each of 271 participants from their own Facebook Wall, and pasted to an online survey.  Status update and response comments contain characters such as letters, numbers, and symbols to express meaning.  Seven textual measures were used to quantify the content of these messages; one such measure was a count of the number of characters contained in each response.  Results show message length is associated with perceived partner responsiveness and feelings of increased intimacy with those who reply to one’s status update with a response comment.  Women, and close friends and family post longer messages.  The outward appearance of a message matters for the perception of responsive communication on Facebook

The Associations among Computer Mediated Communication, Relationships, and Well-being

Social support provided by interpersonal relationships is one of the most robust correlates of well-being. Self-disclosure serves as a basic building block of these relationships. With the rapid growth of the internet in recent years, the question remains how self-disclosure, and subsequently relationships and well-being, differ when people communicate over the internet rather than in person. The purpose of this article is to describe current internet usage patterns as well as explore the association of internet usage and well-being. Additionally, it directly compares the perceived benefits of face-to-face communication and computer mediated communication. A questionnaire was administered to 99 undergraduates to measure internet usage patterns, communication partners, self-disclosure, extraversion, and subjective well-being. Although internet communication was found to be common, individuals perceived computer mediated communication to be less useful than face-to-face communication. In addition, increased internet usage was associated with decreased well-being. Implications are discussed in terms of a new internet paradox in which people increasingly use the internet for communication although they perceive it to be less beneficial than face-to-face interactions and it is associated with reduced well-being