W8. Task 6. Disagreements no. 4 Isolation

This article discusses the idea that prolonged use of the Internet by teenagers will result in them becoming isolated from other people, with the research conducted providing strong evidence to the contrary, as it showed that the majority of the time adolescents spent online was spent talking to people they knew offline, about friends and gossip. This therefore implies that online relationships are used to maintain and to build on existing relationships, rather than for identity play and this is something I would agree with.

My criticism of this would be the date that the data was gathered. In 2004, although only five years ago, personally my internet use was much different, perhaps because of my age but also because of the technology available. It is possible that now, after the use of social networking sites such as facebook and myspace has really taken off, and it has therefore become easier to connect with strangers, maybe the evolution of the technology has made it easier for teenagers to spend more of their time online. As a result it is possible that teenagers could become isolated from IRL friends and be more likely to have more online social interactions with strangers as it is more socially acceptable now.

Article: Gross, E.F. (2004) “Adolescent Internet use: What we expect, what teens report” Applied Developmental Psychology, Vol. 25 (Issue 6), P.633-649