Andrea Hunter

• IM (Instant Messaging)

• MySpace

• Facebook

• Photo bucket

• Mobile Phone

• Critical element for staying socially connected

• Messaging Friends

• Updates on Classmates

• Photos

• Important for developing and maintaining friendships with

peers

• Used when getting together physically is not possible

• Friends can hang out virtually

• Making Friends

• Performing Friendships

• Articulating Friendship Hierarchies

• Navigating Issues of Status, Attention, and Drama

• The mall use to be the main place for teens to hang out and get

together

• In 2004-2007 we where doing field work outside, while most

teens where on social media sites

• “Hanging Out” is what social media is to most teens

• They use Friendship-driven sites to connect

Friendship Vs.. Interest

• MySpace

• Facebook

• Popularity

• Romantic Relationships

• Status

• Messaging around

• “Geeked out” Interests

• Live Journal

• Web forums

• Sites that share interests as MySpace

and Facebook

Role that technology plays in Friendships

Uses of Social Media

Establishing Develop and Maintain Friendship

Reinforcing Seek Attention

Complicating Generate Drama

Damaging Friendship-driven social bonds

Spread Rumors

Social world beings with the phone for many

teens

Gossip

Allows teens to take their friendships to a

new level

Bullying

• Teens Struggle With:

• Fitting In

• Standing Out

• Keeping up with what is cool

• Bullying

• Also Helps Develop

• Social Norms

• Tastes

• Knowledge

• Culture

“When teens are involved in friendship-driven practices online and offline are not separate worlds- they are simply different settings in

which to gather with friends and peers”

• When choosing friends

• Race

• Religion

• Ethnicity

• Gender

~Where all factors in choosing friends, but not segregated by~

Relationships in school are most dominate in how they define their

peers and friendships

• Allows teens to move beyond geographic restrictions and

connect with new people

• Many U.S teens do not use social media to socialize with new

people, they use it to strengthen relationships they already have

• One teen states that Facebook makes it easier to get to know

classmates they don’t know very well

• By Interest (Gaming, Creative Production)

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender (Feel isolated in school)

• Pure Strangers (No judgment)

• Intimate matters (No public embarrassment)

• People who are shy

• Culture

~Most of these groups connect with people they do not know~

• Risky when connecting with people you do not know

• Some do it to create a Mass Friend collection

• Sexual Predators

• Social repercussions when rejecting strangers

~Those who help to prevent~

• School Assembles

• Mainstream Media

• Law Enforcement

• Teachers

• Parents

Choosing Friends Deleting Friends

Social Tensions who to include &

whom to exclude

Socially Unacceptable

Different strategies for choosing Reject people do not like (scary for

some)

People they know Delete people who annoy them

People they don’t know well, accept

to not offend them

After fights or breakups

Exclude people they know well, do

not want on pages (Ex: family,

parents, siblings, teachers)

Spiteful and intentional (hurt others)

Teen must determine own boundaries

(not easy)

Not popular enough for them

• Allows teen to be more carefully attuned

• Tied to process of building, performing, articulating, & developing friendships

• Teens value to help maintain, build, & develop friendships with peers

• Teens share culture, emotions, & ideas

• Even though drama & social warfare exist- ultimately social media strengthens connections

• Positive interactions are enhanced while negative interactions are intensified

• Teens want to develop their friendships, culture, & independent from parents

~Social Media has allowed this~