US Teens love social networking
p2pnet.net News:- More than half (55%) of all young online Americans aged 12-17 use social networking sites, says a new national survey of teenagers.
For girls, the sites are, “primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; for boys, the networks also provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends,” says the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview.
It also finds older teens, particularly girls, are more likely to use them.
Rupert Murdoch’s troubled MySpace is among the largest of such sites which the report describes as online places, “where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users.
But, “The explosive growth in the popularity of these sites has generated concerns among some parents, school officials, and government leaders about the potential risks posed to young people when personal information is made available in such a public setting,” says Pew.
Findings:
- 66% of teens who have created a profile say that their profile is not visible to all internet users. They limit access to their profiles.
- 48% of teens visit social networking websites daily or more often; 26% visit once a day, 22% visit several times a day.
- Older girls ages 15-17 are more likely to have used social networking sites and created online profiles; 70% of older girls have used an online social network compared with 54% of older boys, and 70% of older girls have created an online profile, while only 57% of older boys have done so.
Teenagers who took part also say social networking sites help them manage their friendships
- 91% of all social networking teens say they use the sites to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82% use the sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person.
- 72% of all social networking teens use the sites to make plans with friends; 49% use the sites to make new friends.
- Older boys who use social networking sites (ages 15-17) are more likely than girls of the same age to say that they use social networking sites to make new friends (60% vs. 46%).
- Just 17% of all social networking teens say they use the sites to flirt.
- Older boys who use social networking sites are more than twice as likely as older girls to say they use the sites to flirt; 29% report this compared with just 13% of older girls.
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