Teens Make, Maintain Friendships Online, But Rarely Take Them Offline

1More than half of teens have made at least one new friend online. Fully 57% of teenagers have met a new friend over the internet, with almost three-in-ten teens (29%) saying they have made more than five friends this way.

But while the teens said that social media helped them feel more connected to their friends, they also recognized the pitfalls.

58 percent of social media or cell phone users have unfriended or unfollowed former friends (63 percent of girls, 53 percent of boys), and 45 percent have blocked them (53 percent of girls, 37 percent of boys).

The online survey conducted by GfK Group received responses from 1,060 teens through a parent or guardian from September 25 to October 9, 2014 and February 10 to March 16, 2015. Fifty-nine percent reported video chatting with their friends, and among boys especially, playing games with friends online (talking all the while) was a powerful way to bond with friends or meet new ones. That’s because many of today’s online games involve interacting, competing or cooperating with other players and the Pew data reflects what I have learned from speaking with teens.

But social media has a dark side. Girls are a lot more likely (78 percent vs. 52 percent) to meet friends through social media. “But mobile phones, social media and, for boys, online video gaming have become deeply enmeshed in creating and maintaining teen friendships”. Some three-quarters of teens surveyed had smartphones, and a similar amount reported using social media and instant messaging to keep in touch with friends. A quarter said they do so on a daily basis. Teen girls (32%) are more likely than their male counterparts (20%) to say they have had this type of conflict, while whites are more likely than blacks to have fought with a friend because of something that happened online. Eighty-eight percent of teens text their friends at least occasionally, with 55 percent doing so daily.

The study showed that teen-age friendships are both made and tested in social media environments. This is admittedly anecdotal, but my kids are in much more frequent contact with their far-flung network of childhood friends than I was at their age.

While many parents might assume their teens are wasting time online, research from Pew released this week reveals that, for many, the technology is enabling them to forge friendships and support networks.

The survey wasn’t all good news. And, for some, social media can bring on sadness with 21 percent reporting, “feeling worse about their own life because of what they see from other friends on social media”.