More than half of teens make new friends online

Fifty-seven percent of teens, those between 13 and 17 in this study, have made a new friend online, with 29 percent of teens saying they have made more than five new friends online.

According to a Pew Research Center Study published Thursday, technology is at the center of most teen friendships, with texting reigning as the top daily communication tool.

It seems that, whether we like it or not, the internet has provided a new world for teens, a new experience that has made the line in between the virtual and the real one more blurred than in the past.

The study looked at digital habits of 1,060 teens age 13 to 17.

Boys (61 percent) are more likely to make online friends than girls (52 percent). Girls choose to stay connected via Twitter and Facebook, the majority of them opting for these social-media platforms. But before parents start to fret about stranger danger and Catfishing, only 20 percent of teenagers surveyed have said they have made face-to-face contact with the online friend.

More than three quarters (76 percent) of teens use social media and 71 percent of all teens say they spend time interacting with friends on social media while 23 percent say they do so every day. A quarter said they do so on a daily basis.

The study found some downsides to all that sharing. Moreover, young people communicate on social networks and in videogames more than they spend time face to face. To make new friends online, girls in particular gravitate toward social media, while boys are more likely than girls to make friends through online gaming. (I didn’t know teen friendships were so high-maintenance). 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.

Part of the reason today’s teens are gravitating to social media and technology may be because they don’t have transportation to meet friends or they have busy schedules with after-school jobs, sports and homework.

“Teens face challenges trying to construct an appropriate and authentic online persona for multiple audiences, including adults and peers”, the report notes. Seventy percent say it makes them feel more connected to their friends’ feelings. Most (88 percent) teenage social media users believe that people share too much information about themselves on social media with 42 percent saying they have had someone post things on social media about them that they can not change or control. You can find a lot more information about teens and social media at ConnectSafel.org, the site of a non-profit organization where I serve as CEO.