Post: What Are Virtual Friends For?
What Are Virtual Friends For?
How many of you remember seeing your friends at school, then hanging out after school and then talking on the phone for an hour or more at night? I remember watching a TV show with my friend in one ear on the phone providing a running commentary.
The need to stay connected to peers is a natural part of being a teen. The need to stay connected is also stronger for girls than boys since girls tend to be more social, and their friendships are much more intimate. The exception is teen dating relationships where girls and boys will IM, text or MySpace together for hours.
What technology has done is to "power" teen friendships. It's like plugging them in or "crank them up a notch." Suddenly there are many more ways for teens to stay connected. They can instant message or text, and often do even when their friend is in the same room. They can comment on each others blogs or MySpace profiles or share videos and photographs. Instead of having to find a landline to get in touch, they can be in constant contact 24/7. Most of the teens I interviewed for my book drew a distinction between online friends they had never met in person and offline friends who they also corresponded with online. It was rare that they would become friends with complete strangers who didn't share some kind of mutual connection or offline friend in common.
The youth marketing company Alloy recently teamed with the research company Harris Interactive to find out how technology is reshaping teen friendships. What's interested me about the findings were that contrary to the popular perception that teens are so immersed in technology they barely come up for air or to talk to real people, they still prefer face to face interactions. I was also intrigued by how teens who augmented their friendships offline with online interaction reported being closer and staying friends longer than they did with teens they only interacted with "in the real world."
This entry continues on the Totally Wired blog, where it first appeared.