So…after presenting my topic in class last Tuesday I realized it was so lame and out dated! So I decided on something new, along with talking to Dr. Xia, and settled on a topic around social networking. I have not narrowed my thesis down totally yet but like the idea of social networking it’s pros and cons and how that effects teenagers who are constantly “plugged in”. I found two articles which I thoroughly enjoyed reading and they really made me see this phenomenon more clearly.

First, I read The MySpace Generation by Jessi Hempel, which was the cover story for the December 12, 2005 issue of Business Week. The article basically states that the newest generation of youngsters is called Generation @. These individuals see the Internet as an access point for creating new forms of social behavior. This new form of behavior blurs the distinctions between online and real-world interactions and overall the young generation largely ignores the difference between the two. This thinking is very different than that of adults who see the Web as a supplement to their daily lives. They tap into information to buy books or send flowers but for the most part their social lives remain rooted in the traditional pone call and face-to-face interaction.

Because teenagers are constantly plugged in companies are finding ways to cash in on this new form of social networking. They are starting companies based on this activity, like MySpace and Facebook, but the owners of these companies are now older than their users and they are having a hard time keeping up with what to do in order to keep the company thriving. The owner of the online community of Buzz-Oven made the hard decision to pass down the torch to a younger version of himself in order the keep Buzz-Oven thriving. As of the time of this article being published that was the right decision but they individual who somewhat replaced him did have the capability to black list the owner if one wrong thing was done and doing that over the internet reaches many individuals simultaneously.

I understand that this article may be outdated and we have come further than what is being talked about but the newer stuff is so new it hasn’t been written about and I find this very fascinating.

The next article I chose was Adolescents on the Net: Internet use and Well-Being by Kaveri Subahmanyam and Gloria Lin. The paper examined the relationship between adolescent online activity and well being which included a study of 156 adolescent participants between the age of 15 and 18.4. The participants were surveyed on the their access to and use of the Internet as well as measuring loneliness and perceived social support. Previous research suggests that the extent of adolescents’ Internet use places a concern that this use displaces activities important for adolescent development such as physical activities and social interactions with peers that occur in face-to-face contexts and over the phone. Ultimately, the authors believe that the displacement of adolescents “real interactions” with peers and family may substitute weak ties for strong ones.

Overall the researchers found some indication that participants who reported receiving less support from their parents were more likely to have met an online acquaintance and to have become good friend with him or her. They believe their findings to be related to the participants perception of their relationship with online acquaintances could have been due to one of two reasons which were the weakness in nature of the ties and the participants unrealistic perceptions about friendships and relationships. It seems that the researchers have not come to any profound or concrete findings but do highlight the need for more research on this topic of adolescents and development in conjunction with the Internet.
These two articles talk about how prevalent social networking in adolescents is and how it has changed from face to face to online. This is a good indicator as to how the adolescents will act when put in the work force and have to deal with individuals face to face on a daily basis. I hope to find more linkages and articles talking about this to study it further in my paper.
Links to articles:
MySpace Generation
http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/detail?vid=29&hid=116&sid=1c60b682-25d3-457f-aee5-7d33f137f78b%40sessionmgr108&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=19025357
Adolescents on the Net: Internet Use and Well Being.
http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/pdf?vid=27&hid=116&sid=1c60b682-25d3-457f-aee5-7d33f137f78b%40sessionmgr108