Older Adolescents and Social Networking Sites
Abstract
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2007), social networking web-
sites are sites where users create a profile and connect their profile to others for the
purpose of forming a personal network. Older adolescents are frequent users of such
social networking sites and therefore one goal of this study was to investigate their
motives for use of them. The findings revealed that for the 703 older adolescents in this
survey there were four motivations for use of social networking sites: passing time,
entertainment, social identity gratifications and virtual companionship. Among
participants who identified with their peer groups and reported positive feelings about
them, the most important motivations for use were ritual in nature -- entertainment and
passing time. By contrast, those participants who did not identify strongly with their peer
groups and felt negative about them appeared to act instrumentally by seeking virtual
companionship from social networking sites.
Word count: 150
Key words: Social identity, collective self-esteem, social networking sites
2
Convention