Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships

Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Patricia M. Greenfield

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Over the past decade, technology has become increasingly important in the lives of adolescents. As a group, adolescents are heavy users of newer electronic communication forms such as instant messaging, e-mail, and text messaging, as well as communication-oriented Internet sites such as blogs, social networking, and sites for sharing photos and videos. Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield examine adolescents' relationships with friends, romantic partners, strangers, and their families in the context of their online communication activities. The authors show that adolescents are using these communication tools primarily to reinforce existing relationships, both with friends and romantic partners. More and more they are inte-grating these tools into their offline worlds, using, for example, social networking sites to get more information about new entrants into their offline world.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)119-146
Number of pages28
JournalThe Future of Children: Children and Media Technology
Volume18
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes

Disciplines

  • Psychology

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