Digital communication has become an integral part of teenagers' lives. Is it changing who they are, diminishing their ability to conduct more traditional relationships?

 by Rune H. Rasmussen

According to studies performed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 75% of all teenagers (and 58% of 12-year-olds) now have a mobile phone. Almost 90% of teens send and receive texts, most of them daily. During recent years, texting has become "the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends".

More than 80% of teens also use their phones to take pictures (and 64% to share those pictures with others). Sixty per cent listen to music on them, 46% play games, 32% swap videos and 23% access social networking sites. In short, the mobile phone has become "the favoured communication hub for the majority of teens".

As well as this, 73% use social networking sites, mostly Facebook – an increase of 50 per cent in three years.  Amanda Lenhart, a Pew senior research specialist, says:

"Simply, these technologies meet teens' developmental needs. Mobile phones and social networking sites make the things teens have always done – defining their own identity, establishing themselves as independent of their parents, looking cool, impressing members of the opposite sex – a whole lot easier."

Classic teen stuff
“Flirting, boasting, gossiping, teasing, hanging out, confessing: all that classic teen stuff has always happened,” Lenhart says. “It's just that it used to happen behind the bike sheds, or via tightly folded notes pressed urgently into sweating hands in the corridor between lessons. Social networking sites and mobile phones have simply facilitated the whole business, a gadzillion times over.”

Professor Patti Valkenburg, of the University of Amsterdam's internationally respected Centre for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media, claims that digital communication helps teenagers resolve one of the fundamental conflicts that rages within every adolescent:

“Adolescence is characterised by an enhanced need for self-presentation, or communicating your identity to others, and also self-disclosure – discussing intimate topics. Both are essential in developing teenagers' identities, allowing them to validate their opinions and determine the appropriateness of their attitudes and behaviours."

The big plus of texting, instant messaging and social networking is that it allows the crucial identity-establishing behaviour, without the accompanying embarrassment of face-to-face communication. "These technologies give their users a sense of increased controllability," Valkenburg says. "That, in turn, allows them to feel secure about their communication, and thus freer in their interpersonal relations."

Is it changing our teenagers?
A question that concerns parents is whether such an unprecedented increase in non face-to-face communication is changing our teenagers – turning them into screen-enslaved, socially challenged adults.

On this topic, Amanda Lenhart says. "Our research shows face-to-face time between teenagers hasn't changed over the past five years. Technology has simply added another layer on top. Yes, you can find studies that suggest online networking can be bad for you. But there are just as many that show the opposite."

We should, she suggests; "Step back. The telephone, the car, the television – they all, in their time, changed the way teens relate to each other, and to other people, quite radically. And how did their parents respond? With the same kind of wailing and gnashing of teeth we're doing now. These technologies change lives, absolutely. But it's a generational thing."

Source:

Guardian
Teenagers and technology: 'I'd rather give up my kidney than my phone'

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