As the world advances, so does technology. Since the beginning of man, people have found ways to communicate with each other for survival or companionship. Telegrams, letters, and postcards are all things of the past. Over time, these things have given way to email and cell phones. The newest form of communication is social networking. Social networks are a relatively new addition to our lives. Since their beginning in the early 2000s in the form of blogs (Bowles, 2013), social networks have expanded to encompass almost every corner of the world and include access to almost any topic or interest. These websites have attracted people of all age groups, especially adolescents. This age group is very impressionable and vulnerable, which
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A survey was done in 2009 with the main purpose of finding if social networking affected face-to-face socializing. It showed that 93% of teens in the United States use the internet, and of that number 73% have a social networking account (Friending, IMing, and Hanging Out Face-to-Face, pg 357, para 1). Overall, neither online nor face-to-face socialization suffered because of the other. Much of this percentage uses social networking sites to receive guidance from friends on a number of age-related topics. The topics, which are associated primarily with adolescence in general, include sexuality, intimacy, identity, and independence (Reich, Subrahmanyam & Espinoza, 2012). The research in this article shows that many adolescent social networkers use the sites for a number of reasons. Some of these include staying in touch with friends they do not come in contact with often, alleviating boredom, keeping contact with family, recreation, amongst other reasons (Reich, Subrahmanyam & Espinoza, 2012). It also states that the majority of users are responsible in keeping personal information private, which includes not associating with people they do not know in real life, even without parental supervision (Reich, Subrahmanyam & Espinoza,
A survey was done in 2009 with the main purpose of finding if social networking affected face-to-face socializing. It showed that 93% of teens in the United States use the internet, and of that number 73% have a social networking account (Friending, IMing, and Hanging Out Face-to-Face, pg 357, para 1). Overall, neither online nor face-to-face socialization suffered because of the other. Much of this percentage uses social networking sites to receive guidance from friends on a number of age-related topics. The topics, which are associated primarily with adolescence in general, include sexuality, intimacy, identity, and independence (Reich, Subrahmanyam & Espinoza, 2012). The research in this article shows that many adolescent social networkers use the sites for a number of reasons. Some of these include staying in touch with friends they do not come in contact with often, alleviating boredom, keeping contact with family, recreation, amongst other reasons (Reich, Subrahmanyam & Espinoza, 2012). It also states that the majority of users are responsible in keeping personal information private, which includes not associating with people they do not know in real life, even without parental supervision (Reich, Subrahmanyam & Espinoza,