Social Networking sites, like Facebook and MySpace, have been changing the way teenagers and young adults communicate to their real world communities, since they were created.

25/04/2010 Jennifer_cumming 15 comments

There are currently over 400 million active Facebook users and over a quarter of these are currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices (Facebook Statistics, 2010). This paper discusses how Social Networking Sites (SNS’s), like Facebook and Myspace, are changing the way the teenagers and young adults are communicating to their real world communities, drawing attention to the increasing access of SNSs on mobile internet.

There was once a time where if I wanted to contact a friend or a member of my family, I would pick up a phone and ring them. Now, if I wanted to talk to a friend, I would instantly check whether they were on “Facebook chat” before I resort to having to call them from my mobile phone. This shows that since Social Networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, began that people have changed the way they communicate, especially in teenagers and young adults.

Social Networking sites are defined as web-based services which allow users to create for themselves a public/semi-public or private profile within an enclosed system. They allow the user to create a list of other users with whom they share any type of connection. They can also allow the user to view and manage their list of connections, and those of others within the system (boyd, 2007). Within the user’s profile, it normally contains some variety of information about the user. Some descriptors, for example from Facebook, are put into categories. ‘Basic Information’ for example, contains the user’s gender, location, birthday, family and network interests. There is also ‘Personal Information’, which contains the person’s interests, activities, favourites, and an ‘About Me’ section in which the user can write as much information as they want summing themselves up to name but a few. Myspace is similar, and has the same sort of information sections. These information sections provide the user with space to fill out details about their real life persona. People who are good friends with the user will normally know most of the details, but can also learn more information about their friend through these details. It can provide a start to communication as it will provide people with common interests to converse in a topic that they never would have necessarily known that the other person was interested in. These SNS’s will also normally provide some sort of privacy filter, in which the user can control who sees what information that they provide. In most profiles, the user will have an opportunity to upload a photo to represent them. Usually a recent photograph of the user is displayed. The user can also add photo albums to share with their friends and in both services, can “tag” other friends in them so that they can also be viewed from their friend’s profile. Another thing both services have is that the users have a “wall” or comment space, in which their Social Network friends can comment on. This allows communication through the service as users can converse on a particular photo without having to have it printed out like they would if they were having a face to face conversation. In addition to these SNS features, some SNS’s also provide a means of realtime instant messaging conversation. For example, on Facebook chat, you can be signed in or out of chat and can view which of your Facebook friends are online. If your friend is online, you can then choose them to have a real time chat with through the Facebook service. This allows the user to be able to have a conversation with a friend, without having to pick up a phone and have an instant response. Over 300 million chat messages are sent per day on Facebook and 67% of Facebook users have used Facebook chat at least once. (Facebook Statistics, 2010) This allows users to communicate with people on their SNS for example, with whom they have not swapped telephone numbers or are unable to call long distance etc without incurring a high cost. It also means people can have short conversations in the amount of time that it could normally take to make a phone call.

Social Networking Sites started in around 1997 with Six Degrees. It was followed in around 1999 by sites such as LiveJournal and BlackPlanet. Then in 2003 there was a boom of new sites, such as MySpace, LinkedIn, Hi5, and followed in 2004 by Facebook (Harvard only) and Flickr. This boom of new sites continued through 2005 and 2006 in which Facebook grew to include high school networks and eventually to corporate networks. Other major sites, such as YouTube, Bebo, Twitter and Windows Live Spaces also launched and became incredibly popular. (boyd, 2007) With the launch of all of these SNS’s this would have been when people were starting to have more conversations online rather than face to face. Although face to face communications still would have been occurring, people would have been able to know more information on someone if they had met them over an SNS rather than if they had met them face to face due to all the information on the person that was available online, therefore changing how the users would converse online compared to if they had met in person. As this paper is concentrating on Facebook and MySpace, it is going to look at some of the statistics on how quickly the sites grew. Facebook founders, Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin launched Facebook from their dorm room at Harvard in early 2004. Within a month, it had expanded from Harvard to include Stanford, Columbia and Yale. By December 2004, Facebook had reached nearly 1 million active users. In September 2005, it expanded to add high school networks and the following month it also added international school networks. So by the time it was just under 2 years old, it had more than 5.5 million active users. From here, Facebook grew and grew, having more than 12 million active users by December 2006, and up to 20 million in April 2007 then over 50 million users in October 2007. In August 2008, it reached over 100 million active users and by January 2009 it was still growing with 150 million active users. In April 2009 it had 200 million active users, July it had 250 million users, September 300 million active users and December 350 million active users, taking us to its current total of over 400 million active users in February 2010. (Facebook Statistics, 2010)

Myspace has a similar growth, about 10 months before Facebook. It launched in January 2004, and by the following month, it had 1 million members. By November 2004, it had 5 million members. It grew slightly faster than Facebook, due to it being launched at the whole world at the same time, unlike Facebook’s step from Harvard, to other Colleges, High Schools and eventually Internationally. By July 2005, MySpace had 20 million users, and this grew along with the site including MySpace Music, MySpace Film and MySpace Records. By March 2007, MySpace had hit 100 million monthly unique users worldwide. (MySpace, 2010)

With Facebook having spent nearly its first year with selected Colleges in America, this allowed MySpace to make its place in the Social Networking market, with this being shown by its growth in just 11 months. Therefore, by the time Facebook was released to Schools outside of America, most international teenagers/young adults were using MySpace to socialise online with their friends.

In 2008, eROI (an email marketing company in Oregon, US) surveyed 283 high school and college students. They found that there were varying reasons students signed up for email addresses, and one-quarter of students got an email address for social-networking purpose. 81% however, got an email address for communicating with family, and 52% for communicating with friends. During their survey, eROI also found that 83% of college students were using Facebook and 65% were using MySpace. However, overall they said that there was a very minor increase in email usage since getting an initial email address, so it appeared that students had a real need for email when they first set up their address and it was not just for the purpose of setting up a social networking profile. From this we could take that before Facebook and MySpace, students were using their emails to communicate with their family, and some with their friends. This led to the start of the change in the way people were communicating.

From their survey, eROI also found that the preferred means of communication was still text message at 37% but that social networking IM and social networking email were starting to catch up with email at 15%, and social networking IM and social networking email at 11% and 37% respectively. Teenagers and young adults are now using mobile phones as their primary means of communication, mainly with the use of text messaging and the ease of access to SNS’s with mobile internet. With social networking IM and social networking email growing in popularity as a preferred means of communication, this is one way in which the change in communication can be shown in the teenagers and young adults.

Some Social Networking companies are now editing their mobile internet sites so it is easier for users to access them from their mobile phones. Facebook is a prime example of this. Reported by the BBC News in February 2010, “the world’s biggest social network has revealed details of a stripped-down, text-only version of its mobile site called Facebook Zero.” The article then goes on to say that the new site is to “omit data intensive applications like photos”. It also mentions that Facebook already offers a slimmed down version of the its site, called Facebook Lite, which is for people who have slow/poor internet connections and that it is aimed at users in the developing world.

In February 2010, there was a survey of 500 Americans adults over 18 years old conducted by Ruder Finn, an American public relations agency, which commented on how long Americans are spending on average on the mobile Internet. From this survey, it seems the main reason Americans use their mobile Internet is to pass time. 100% of the Americans surveyed said this was the main thing they did with their internet, 85% said it was to be entertained and 72% said it was for escape. For socialising reasons, 98% use mobile internet to connect, 88% said to share, 96% to discuss and 81% said to be a part of a community. Within the 98% of those users who use the mobile internet to connect, 55% used it to send an instant message to family or friends, 60% used it to connect to family/friends, 62% used it to send/receive instant messages and 34% used it to chat using a social networking site.

This shows that the 60% of people who were using the mobile internet to connect to family and friends have changed the way they communicate with these people, especially along with the 34% who use is specifically to chat using a SNS. This shows that currently people have changed the way they communicate. People are still conversing face to face, but there is still this rise in the change of communication methods.

Skype conducted a survey in 2008 in which it is seen that email is now the “new snail mail”. In this survey that was conducted by Harris Interactive, Skype surveyed 3,091 American online adults which confirmed that many people, especially the young adults are opting to use other forms of communication including instant messaging, social networks and audio and visual calling using programs like Skype. 59% of the people surveyed said that they prefer the newer communication options to email due to the immediacy of the new options. This may be due to the 52% of people that said there was more interchange as it is like having a live conversation because you can communicate spontaneously. 42% of people surveyed said that they find alternative methods more convenient to communicate with people as they can also see if they person is free before they call or send a message. Although I have focused my paper on teenagers/young adults, 13% of the online adults said they have replaced all or some of their business email communications since they started using social networking sites etc. (Skype, 2008) It is likely that this will continue to grow in business. Some companies already have Skype access, through using Skype Business, such as Maxim Integrated Products. (Skype, 2010)

Skype is already having a break through with Social Networking, so not only can you use your mobile phone to Skype friends and access Facebook, but with a new Facebook application, you can now see which of your Facebook friend are using Skype. You can then add them to Skype, and with a browser add-on, you can also see which of your Facebook friends that you have on Skype are online via a small Skype symbol next to their name in the news feeds. From this information you could go on to look at what will come next with SNS’s and audio and visual calling merging. It could become likely that SNS’s will join programs like Skype to ensure that people do not lose their original face to face conversations so that all communication will not become text-based.

In conclusion, people used to communicate face to face, and if not, by letter or telephone. With technological advances, people then used email to communicate but were also still communicating face to face or by telephone or letter. With even more technological advances and the growth of Social Networking sites, people are communicating more by Internet using these sites, and also via their mobile phones, which also have Internet access. With people now being able to do banking online, it could be said that letters will cease to exists, and then the same with text messaging, now that Instant Messaging is available on mobile telephones. Teenagers and young adults in recent years are normally constantly attached to their mobile phones and the internet. Maybe there should be some way of bringing back face to face communication through Social Networking sites, would this help to eliminate the isolation of people heading straight towards Social Networking to converse? Maybe this is just yet another thing that only time will tell.

References

boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007) ‘Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Volume 13, Issue 1, Article 11. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html retrieved March 29^th 2010.

Facebook. (2010) Statistics. Retrieved 20^th April, 2010, from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Facebook. (2010) Company Timeline. Retrieved March 29^th, 2010, from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics#!/press/info.php?timeline

Myspace. (2010) Timeline. Retrieved March 29^th, 2010, from http://www.myspace.com/pressroom?url=/timeline/

BBC. (2010) Facebook Launch “Zero” site for mobile phones. Retrieved March 31^st, 2010, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8518726.stm

Ruder Finn. (2010) Mobile Intent Index. Retrieved March 31^st, 2010, from http://www.ruderfinn.com/rfrelate/intent/mobile/intent-index.html

eROI. (2008) Student survey: How Students Communicate Online. Retrieved March 31^st, 2010, from http://www.njovem.com.br/downloads/Q408_student_survey.pdf

Wolinsky, H. (2008) Survey shows untimely e-mail lost glow, being replaced by IM, social networks, voice/video calling. Retrieved March 31^st, 2010, from http://share.skype.com/sites/us/2008/07/survey_shows_email_losing_glow.html

Skype. (2010) Maxim: Case Study. Retrieved March 31^st, 2010, from http://www.skype.com/business/case-studies/maxim/

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Social Networks communication, Communities, Facebook, mobile internet, myspace, Social Networking

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Comments

Written by Jennifer_cumming about 2 years ago.

Hi Sky, thanks for the comment, sorry it’s taken me way too long to reply.

I found a really interesting article by J. Alison Bryant, Ashley Sanders-Jackson and Amber M. K. Smallwood which seems to address some of the effects of social interactive technologies on adolescents, more on how they overlap their online friends with their offline friends and the differences that may occur between these two groups. I found it really interesting as it didn’t just focus on using social networking sites, but also on how IM’s and SMS’s have effect communication between groups. The paper can be found at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue2/bryant.html.

I also found another paper, which says that social networking can lead to improving existing relationships, therefore improving the wellbeing of the adolescent user. It may not be as relevant to my paper as it draws on information from chat room and IM usage rather than SNS’s. But i hope you might still find it slightly interesting http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/valkenburg.html.

I guess there are other effects on people communicating through SNSs, but i found it kind of hard to find the effects as im not sure its being researched so much.

Through your view of what the effects could be, i agree with you on some parts, but with the adolescents, i think they are still using text language to write on SNS sites, and im not sure whether this is improving their writing skills. But in regards to them reading and writing more, if they were to focus on writing in proper English, then it could be extremely beneficial.
I also think there are a few papers in the conference which deal with the effects of social networking on communication which are really interesting. I’ve listed them below:
http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2010/05/the-addictive-nature-of-social-networking-sites-has-facilitated-the-downward-spiral-of-communication-skills/ – Really interesting view on the negative effects on communication with good examples of several different SNSs.
http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2010/04/social-networks-and-instant-messaging-are-not-contributing-to-the-destruction-of-the-english-language/ – Suggests the same view as you, that SNSs and IM are not damaging a language, but are having positive effects.
http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2010/04/a-social-society-the-positive-effects-of-communicating-through-social-networking-sites/ – this notes varying positive effects that can occur from communication through SNSs.

I hope you find some of these useful, sorry i couldn’t seem to come up with any interesting information of my own, but i hope these will direct you more to the effects that you are interesting in.
Thanks again for commenting
Written by Jennifer_cumming about 2 years ago.

Thanks Michael!! I definately agree that the decrease in usage of some mediums of communication is due to the evolution of technology. When emails were introduced they were highly used, and the same when the rate of people owning mobile phones increased, so i dont doubt for one minute that it’s the same with current technology. For all i know Facebook and the internet on a laptop will be old hat next year and we’ll all be accessing them with iPads or something similar rather than what we’ll probably note as “silly old clunky laptops”. So as my paper says, social networking sites have been changing the ways that people are communicating, and i still think this is still in process and shall continue until another new technology arrives to change this communication technique. I know for people i meet nowadays, i rarely take a phone number, but instead pass on my full name to be added on facebook, people i’ve only just met are learning alot more about me than they would over a phone call i think! Maybe thats a bit of a scary thought. Thanks for commenting though!
Written by Jennifer_cumming about 2 years ago.

Thanks Wendy! I tend to like putting in facts and figures to back my argument, helps me put my point across! I must say though, i’m probably one of those types of university students who multi-task in the way you mentioned, i dont know how i can talk to a friend face to face, facebook chat another, all whilst still texting another but can’t remember anything i learnt last week!! Wish my brain could remember stuff as well as it multitasks!!
Written by WendyL about 2 years ago.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for an interesting paper. You have provided alot of percentages to support your argument which has been very interesting because my paper is about the positive influence of social networks. It is incredible how fast facebook has increased in active users in such a short span of time.

Early in our study period I came across a documentary (sorry I don’t have the reference information for this) that showed college/university students who were taking a break from classes. During this break they were sitting at a table talking together and at the same time they were all texting on their phones and typing to friends on their laptops. And the surprising thing to me was that they seemed to be multi-tasking quite well.
Written by craigj about 2 years ago.

Hey Jen,

I came across another study done by PEW regarding mobile phones. It shows that 23% of teens access social networking sites from their mobile phone (Bloch, 2010).
63% do not have internet access from their phones (Bloch, 2010).

This shows that texting is still more favourable over SNS when communicating from a mobile device. From a mobile device perspective, communication habits have changed slightly when regarding SNS.

Reference:

Bloch, E. (2010). Teens and Their Mobile Phones. PEW Internet Research. Retrieved May 11, 2010, from http://www.flowtown.com/blog/teens-and-their-mobile-phones?display=wide
Written by Michael N about 2 years ago.

You seem to suggest, well I add, that there is a decrease in the usage of email and face to face in favour of Facebook and other electronic mediums and platforms. Whilst such a generalisation may not be able to be properly verified, I have personally noticed a decrease in email as a way to contact others and I am not a teenager. I think that teenagers are using different mediums but is this just the evolution of technology? Technology changes do cause changes in behaviour which leads to society changing its attitudes and habits. Part of that is the ‘are you on Facebook’ habit where this becomes a medium for communication over phoning. So you arguement and the things you put forward do show this. Well done.
Written by craigj about 2 years ago.

Hey Jen,

When the time comes that ALL phones are capable of supporting social network integration, and when mobile internet is cheap enough, I think it may be the main communication method.

As I found during my research:

Mobile phones could soon rival the PC as the world’s dominant internet platform. Internet access via the mobile phone actually outpaces wireless access from a notebook PC in many of areas of the world. Globally, just over one-fourth, 28%, of mobile phone owners worldwide have browsed the internet on a wireless handset (Wright, 2006).

References:

Wright, A. (2006). Mobile Phones Could Soon Rival the PC As World’s Dominant Internet Platform Retrieved March 24, 2010, from http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=3049
Written by Jennifer_cumming about 2 years ago.

Mandy, thanks for the comment! I look forward to reading your paper, sounds really interesting. If I were to expand my paper, I could certainly have gone into more detail about the use of mobile internet etc as I only touch on it briefly in my paper. Mobile phone companies do seem to be directing their advertising to draw people in with Social Networking advantages. My own mobile provider gave me a few months free access to Facebook at the beginning of the year, so anyone giving free access may find that they draw in people who use the networking site a lot. I’ll have to take a look at the article about the trapped girls. That really is an extreme example of using SNSs to communicate! Thanks again.
Written by Jennifer_cumming about 2 years ago.

Craig, Thanks for the statistics, I actually didn’t know about PEW and so have had a bit more of a look at their website whilst reading through some of the comments. Interesting stuff!! I agree with your point that mobile phones are growing amongst teens, this can be shown from the stats you gave that the ownerships of mobiles are increasing. Seems from your stats that the communication through SNSs is growing and has overtaken text messages in how teens communicate daily, so yes, people are still using mobile phones for their main communication methods, but I wonder how long it will be before they are using SNSs more than they are texting and calling. I’m not saying that teens will stop using phones for texting and calling, just that the useage of SNSs for communication purposes is on the rise. As my paper says, SNSs are changing the ways teens communicating, this includes the rise in the use of SNSs for communication, so I’m not saying that it’s the main method, just that it’s certainly changed since we did not have SNSs. Thanks again for the stats and the comment though.
Written by Jennifer_cumming about 2 years ago.

Zohara, thanks for your comments. They were really interesting to read. I hope my reply below can try to back up my argument a bit more regarding the issues you had with some parts of my paper. Thanks again for the comments though

I understand your point that not all people use their real life persona, and some social networking profiles are “fakes”. I look forward to reading your paper on the Danger of Social Networking and shall hopefully have some interesting comments for you. If I were to expand my paper, I could include the privacy of Social Networks and how this can have a bad affect on communication as false relationships can be created through these false profiles from privacy invasion.
Again, in your point regarding discussion and communication through social networking sometimes not being a good thing, obviously this was your opinion that sometimes these real time conversations etc do not work due to technical difficulties. This can hinder the positives of communicating through social networking, but with the technological advances of the modern day, there seem to be less and less of these technological difficulties compared to those a few years ago. With the information that Craigj left in a message after you, users are still using traditional methods of communication like 95% of teenagers spend time with their friends face to face and 88% are still conversing via landline phones (Lenhart, 2009). It would depend entirely on the users preference, as for me it is easier to converse with some people via internet as those I want to communicate with all have internet access so can communicate via our social networking profiles, rather than use up our mobile phone credit and waiting for the text message or phone call. It also means I can get an instant response from a friend if I know they are, for example, on Facebook chat. But I do appreciate the view on this that technological advances can incredibly hinder communication if they occur.
With your point on Skype, yes it can be difficult to communicate if there are technological issues or if the other user does not have internet access, but for those who do have internet access it is an incredibly useful application as it can save users alot of money. Even if users do have 1c per minute call cards, an hours long conversation can save you 60c which will add up to be alot more if you continually do use these call cards to converse with different people for various amounts of time. Skype is not used more widely in teenagers than SNS’s, but as I say toward the end, might start to be used with Skype being able to be used on mobile phones. For example, a user may decide to use the wifi internet to call a friend who also has Skype on their phone, rather than use their mobile minutes or credit. This may not be so relevant now, but with newer mobile technology like iPhones, Blackberry’s etc, this could become more accessible to use on the move in the near future.
Internet addiction is becoming more widely known. It is so widely known in America that they opened their own Centre for Internet Addiction in 1995. The Centre classes Internet Addiction as “any online-related, compulsive behaviour which interferes with normal living causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones, and one’s work environment” (FAQs on Internet Addiction, 2009). They also say that 1 in 8 Americans “suffer from problematic Internet Use” and that “those estimates are higher in China, Taiwan, and Korea where 30% or more of the population may experience problematic Internet use” (FAQs on Internet Addiction, 2009). Internet addiction is something that is likely to grow and this is not just down to Social Networking Sites as Internet addiction is also due to addictions to cybersex/cyberporn, shopping sites such as eBay, online gambling as well as multi-user role-playing online games. (FAQs on Internet Addiction, 2009). I personally think that this will happen even if there is not Social Networking Sites, so we can say that people are addicted to them, but people are also addicted to many other things on the Internet.
With your point that mobile internet is expensive, this is a valid point, but the price of these are decreasing and it is certainly cheaper to access the internet through a mobile phone than it would have been a few years ago, and especially with WiFi enabled mobile devices emerging recently.
As I mentioned earlier, the way people communicate will depend on their personal preference, for example, yours is to use a phone card to communicate with family back home, whilst I prefer to communicate with friends via Facebook, upload photos to Facebook for my family and friends to see, as well as using Skype to have “face-to-face” conversations. So it all depends on what the user finds more convenient for their attempts at communicating with others.

References:

Lenhart, A. (2009). Teens and Social Media. New York Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Retrieved May 2, 2010, from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic603902.files/Teens%20Social%20Media%20and%20Health%20-%20NYPH%20Dept%20Pew%20Internet.pdf

FAQs on Internet Addiction. (2005). Retrieved May 2, 2010 from http://www.netaddiction.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=89
Written by Sky about 2 years ago.

I think, like Zohara, I am interested in knowing more about the effects of these shifts in communication methods. Although, as Craig notes, the shift may not be as extensive as some assume, it seems to be significant.

In some ways, I think that the shift to communication through social networking sites rather than (or as well as) through phone calls and other forms of communication may have some positive effects. For example, I think that it encourages a shift towards a more literate culture: young (and older) people on social networking sites are spending the time writing and reading. And because they’re creating their online identities through status updates, comments, and other written communications, there are incentives to think carefully about what they’re writing and the impression that it will convey. Taking an optimistic perspective, this could encourage a thoughtful and creative approach to written communication in our society.
Written by craigj about 2 years ago.

This is the ad for Motoblur – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iefvY8TcOQA
Written by Mandy Burke about 2 years ago.

Hi Jennifer,

I agree with your argument that social networking sites like Facebook have changed the way people communicate with one another and discuss this in further detail in my paper titled “Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has changed the way people communicate” (www.bit.ly/9y6RFb).

I think that you should have included the rise of the smart phone within your conference paper as this has led to many people changing the way they communicate with one another. Whenever I see an advertisement for a mobile phone store they are always advertising free Facebook use through their handsets. They even include the Facebook logo and traditional blue and white Facebook colour scheme to represent this. A phone that has just been released to the market through Motorola is the Motoblur and it actually promotes the phone as “smart gets social” (Motoblur, 2010). This phone has taken social networking through the handset to a whole new level. With all Facebook, Myspace and Twitter feeds being posted directly to the home screen of the phone, without users having to navigate to a number of different screens and proceed with the different logins. It also compiles all contact details through all social network sites and puts them into one contact on your phone. This feature enables the user to choose which medium they would like to communicate with their friend with.

My paper “Facebook’s aggregated news feed has changed the way people communicate” (www.bit.ly/9y6RFb) discusses how people being constantly updated through Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has led to a decrease in traditional communication methods. It provides an example where two young girls that were trapped in a drain actually updated their Facebook status rather than contacting emergency services (‘Trapped girls call for help on Facebook”, 2009).. This example indicates a serious shift from the telephone being our main communication method to the heavy use of social networking through smart phones.

Motoblur (2010). Retrieved on 27 April 2010 from http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/AU-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/MOTOBLUR/Meet-MOTOBLUR?247SEM

Trapped girls call for help on Facebook. (2009, 9 September) ABC News. Retrieved on 29 March 2010 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/07/2678945.htm
Written by craigj about 2 years ago.

Hey Jen,
I agree that Facebook and MySpace are changing the they way teens communicate and ineract with each other. I also agree mobile phones amungs teens is growing too. Once all phones with rich internet access are cheap enough, and internet access on them is also cheaper, I can see it will be the main type of communication.

However, when writing my paper I came acorss these findings from PEW‘s Teens and Social Media (Lenhart, 2009); and they find the main communication method in teens are phone calls and face-to-face conversations:

Cell phone ownership is way up (p.7):
– 45% of 12-17 year olds had them in 2004
– 63% in 2006
– 71% in early 2008.

How teens communicate (p.9):
• 95% of teens spend time with friends face to face
• 88% of teens talk to their friends on a landline
• 67% of teens talk to their friends on their cell phone
• 65% of teens send email to friends
• 61% send messages to friends through social networking sites

How teens communicate daily (p.10):
• 51% of teens (with cell phones) talk on their cell phones
• 42% of teens (who use SNS) send messages through social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook
• 38% of teens send text messages to each other

References:
Lenhart, A. (2009). Teens and Social Media. New York Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Retrieved April 23, 2010, from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic603902.files/Teens%20Social%20Media%20and%20Health%20-%20NYPH%20Dept%20Pew%20Internet.pdf
Written by Zohara Ibrahim about 2 years ago.

According to your topic, I agree Social Networking such as “Facebook” & “Myspace” have been changing the way teenagers and young adulth comunicate to their real world communities, since they were created. Internet changed the young people comunicate through the Social Networking. There are many online Social networks group that have become establish such as Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn, Youtube, Flick, and Twitter (Boyd & Elison, 2007, p. 3). As we know, usually these kind of Social Networking to connect their real person and family and to share their pictures and birthday and as you point easier for them to communicated rather than talked on the phone or meet in real person such as overseas. And another way, these kind of Social Networking giving them for opportunity looking new friends basically, romance even to business people the way them to communicated.
As you first point, the users can uploading their pictures or create their album pictures,which contains the person’s interests, activities, favourites, and an about me section in which the user can write as much information as they want summing themselves up to name but a few. Myspace is similar, and has the same sort of information sections. These information sections provide the user with space to fill out details about their real life persona. People who are good friends with the user will normally know most of the details, but can also learn more information about their friend through these details. On the other hand, I disagree, NOT all good people who are users their real pictures and write their real personal details to get other users attention, the reason some of users DO NOT want to identity their real name and their own picture even though she or he is your real friends that you ever meet in you life. According to my paper “The Danger of Social Networking privacy refers to the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others. (what is privacy?, n.d). According to this, they will steal your personal information such as your birsthday your real pictures and other point is sometimes, we forget to log out our pages so the bad people will keep the other users id and password with the history lines and other tartics. Another point is, according to Facebook, some of students such as uni students discuss their group meeting through the internet rather than meet because as you said, the young teenagers and young people communicate using the Social Networking for easy from them. in this point, i disagree, in my opinion, sometimes discussion or communicate through social networking such as facebook or myspace is NOT good way to communicate in my point, sometimes the users have a trouble shooting while she or he communicate with you through facebook wether email, or message or chat room, according to internet problem such as trouble shooting as i menton as before, the message will no go through to the receiver and also through mobile phone sometimes if no connection internet find on the mobile phones. However, I agree “Skype” is a good way to communicate if our family, friends or any relative live far away from us such as overseas to communicate with them without pay anything which is FREE SERVICE. on the other hand, sometimes as i said before according to internet we do not weither the users in overseas got internet connection or not, because internet problem always hapend, and sometimes using skype is not clear when we talk or webcam (see each other), if we think in the right way, sometimes waste the time to connect the internet and sing in back to reach the person we want to talk and to get the clear connection line. According to paper or survey you find about 59% the people surveyed said that they prefer the newer communication options to email due to the immediacy of the new options, where they want new options for their skype and 42% of people surveyed said that they find alternative methods more convenient to communicate with people as they can also see if they person is free before they call or send a message. As you can see there are 59%-42%=17% different where people found convenience compare where some of users want the new options. I think, the percenatge that have is not large number the different between 42% and 59% is not much different.However, as example if the people who find Skype conveniece said 79%, that means the skype is more convenice than new option where is 59%.
As you point as above, where the young people or teenagers easy for them to communicate from their mobile phone where is they can access the internet without sitting down or in front the internet, in this point to remember using this kind of technology, the young users or teenagers bring them to be addicted. Addicted is the bad habit using the internet even though access the internet by mobile phones. They will ignore their study as my point and their routine habits. According to Facebook, there are so many games where the uses can play with other users online. As you point the young users and teenager change they way they communicate to their real world life, beside that the young users or teenagers spend a lot of time for their games, promote their sexy picture or nude pictures because they want to be popular through Social Networking as example Facebook. According to one of article the girls want to look hot and sexy and boy want look macho. Other argrument, not all mobile phones such as prepaid get the free internet even free internet on mobile phone plan to access the internet through mobile phone, the users waste the money to upgrade or buy the intenet plan to acess the internet as a big space so the young users or teenagers can access and communicate throught the mobile phone and other point is some of mobile phones cannot access the internet such as old mobile phones or new mobile phones too such as samsung z77.
Anyway, in my points, I would like to say, I prefer to communicate my overseas friends or family through phones by International Phone card where is much cheaper & cheaper 1CENT per minute even though the Skype said Free service but for me talk on the phone as traditional or manual are more convenience and safety rather than register to be part of skype or facebook or other social networking members and sign in if want to communicate and waste the time to wait the internet even though now day they have broadband such as faster, but as i said communicate via social networking is not as easier as on the phone, there are so many disadvantages we do not know.