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Social networking & high school seniors
1. HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS AND SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS Denise E. Agosto, Drexel University Joyce Kasman Valenza, Springfield Township HS June Abbas, U. Oklahoma
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3. Suburban school, 850 students Upper middle class Technology prevalent
4. Six focus groups Group 1: (10 teens â 3 boys, 7 girls)Group 2 (7 teens â 6 boys, 1 girl) Group 2 (11 teens â 10 boys, 1 girl) Group 4 (5 teens â 4 boys, 1 girl) Group 5 (6 teens â 5 boys, 1 girl) Group 6 (6 teens â 6 boys) Total: 45 teens 34 boys, 11 girls 18 years-old
5. 1. Do female and male high school seniors have differences in their preferred social networking technologies? If so, what are the differences, and how might they affect library services for teens? 2. How do teens use social networking technologies for school and leisure purposes? Is there gender-related variance in these behaviors? If so, how might it affect library services for teens? 3. How are teens using social online networking for research and for participation in political and social activism, and for gathering college- and career-related information? Is there gender-related variance in these behaviors? If so, how might it affect library services for teens? 4. How can public and school librarians who work with teens ensure that all gender groups are equally served in online library environments?
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7. Double lives School and personal online information kept separate. They use different technologies for school and personal use Two email addresses: One is for communication with teachers, colleges, and employers. The other is for âfun:â contact with friends and for Facebook feeds. Official email includes real name not cute screen name to show adults a more professional side than the side she shows friends when online.
8. Double lives Would they friend teachers on Facebook? âItâs creepyâ (the idea of a teacher seeing a studentâs profile) My parents are âtechnologically-challenged,â so I call them â for my friends, I text and use Facebook Students use email for contact with colleges, texting to talk with friends because itâs the quickest. Email is âless personal,â others âcanât see your profile,â so they use it to communicate with teachers. Agreement within the group, teens use email for communication with teachers; itâs âmuch more official.â
9. Relationships: Especiallyimportant for romantic relationships to be announced & updated on Facebook: âIf itâs not on Facebook, theyâre not a real itemâ âAre they really going out if theyâre not ready to acknowledge it [on Facebook]?â âItâs not really over until you break up on Facebookâ Two of the 10 teens in the room had met their current boy/girl friend or girlfriend via either MySpace or Facebook. âFacebook stalkingâ â everyone in the group recognized the term â means using Facebook to get a first impression of someone without their knowing about it Online flirting: thereâs less risk involved in flirting online; but reduced conversational cues can make online flirting more confusing and less clear than in person.
10. Migrations On Facebook: âItâs not a complete eyesore,â like MySpace was. On MySpace, most friend requests come âfrom strangers.â
11. All groups described described a âbig shift between MySpace and Facebookâ with a âwave of people transferring over.â Why? MySpace lost this reputation, and it subsequently lost users. MySpace = less private â the information there is very âpublicâ Facebook = âmore secureâ âA website like Facebook or MySpace can only survive if it has a reputation as being safe.â
12. MySpace: Some stopped using because of the design features, which were âso overwhelmingâ â itâs much less work to design and update your profile on Facebook. Too much work required to make a page (too much design work, prefer a much simpler layout) Male: used to use MySpace â then one time received messages from people he didnât know, so he felt uncomfortable and shut down his account Frequent system updates required users to relearn the system
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14. General agreement--drastic reduction in the use of house phones. Increased cell phone use, texting. Texting is a constant activity. âI donât like talking on the phone. Iâm a texting person. Itâs to the point.â
15. One boy said that he only resorts to calling if the person he is contacting doesnât answer the text message. Using the house phone is âoutâ â âItâs more private to use your cell phone.â The teens worry that parents or someone else might pick up an extension and hear a private conversation Only uses the home phone for long distance calling; Itâs cheaper just to have a cell phone and no land line. âIâll literally sit next to it [the phone] and let it ring. Iâll wait for someone to walk past me and answer it.â Why because âItâs never for me.â âNo one that I would want or need to talk to ever calls my house phoneâ so I donât answer it. âIf they donât have my cell phone number, I donât want to talk to them.â
17. Female: She keeps Facebook on all night while sheâs doing other things online. Especially texts and uses Facebook at the same time. Boy: talking on cell phone and texting via cell phone; texting is the best method because itâs quick enables him to multitask while communicating; âI usually have five tabs open at once.â Has music on while checking Facebook, checking sports scores, watching videos on YouTube, texting, and emailingâoften all at once. Also plays games and does homework at the same time while listening to music and engaging in the other activities previously listed. âAlways connectedâ to girlfriend and to a small group of friends; likes to watch TV while texting with friends. Usually multitasking while using the Internet; at once uses Twitter, Gmail, NYT website, and does homework.
18. Why or why not multitask? âBoredâ the word recurred over and over. Group: They are always listening to music when engaging in any of these online behaviors: âYou can do anything with music on.â Except when they are reading, they listen to music all the time. Group agreed that quality of their work (especially homework) would be improved if they stopped multitasking, but then they would probably be bored.
19. Facebook friendships are more fleeting. Kids in school will friend you but ignore you in person Rules for friendship
20. Differentiation between âreal friendsâ and âFacebook friends.â Often hear heâs âjust a Facebook friend.â Teens donât really use Facebook to make new friends, but more to strengthen existing friendships Facebook for old friends; texting for current friends Male: says no to people who make friend requests if he doesnât know them Group generally agreed that they only friend people they know, preferably ânot exclusively -- people they talk to face-to-face â exception = will friend people they donât know who are going to go the same colleges next year â âItâs supportiveâ â want to have friends already in place when they arrive at college Group generally agreed that they will only friend an unknown person if itâs a friend of a friend
21. Texting is for close friends; Facebook is for more distant acquaintances. âThe people who you text are your real friends. The people on Facebook are your Facebook friends.â And âThe people you text are the people you hang out with.â Everyone in the group agreed with these three statements. This boy likes to use Facebook for someone he hasnât talked to for a while; generally knows his cell phone texting friends better than the friends he communicates with on Facebook; âIf I havenât seen you before, Iâm not going to be your Facebook friend.â âYou get to know them a little more than you want toâ â reason to block or unfriend unfamiliar Facebook friends. One boy says he plans âto clean out his Facebook closetâ and pare down his friend list to just people he knows reasonably well in the off-line world, both for privacy and annoyance reasons. (Tired of getting status updates on people he doesnât know.)
23. Always connected? Female: has a Blackberry. Emails with her phone. Repeatedly used the word âaddictedâ to describe her online communication behaviors. Female: Has Facebook open on her phone constantly. Kept checking it during the interview. Female: communication via computer use is âaddictingâ â her parents have given her a time limit to reduce her use Male: learned about Facebook from his big sister; now texts âall day longâ Male: uses text all day, even in school; can text in class without disrupting the class Boy: checks Facebook every day â âI stay logged on. I donât even log off.â
25. Female: Momâs family uses MySpace; Dadâs family uses Facebook. Suggests influence of family and community on choice of utilities. Uneasiness among group members with adults seeing their personal online content Generational difference: âWeâre more willing to open up and share about our livesâ than older generations. Using the house phone is âoutâ â âItâs more private to use your cell phone.â The teens worry that parents or someone else might pick up an extension and hear a private conversation Question: Do you friend your parents in social networking sites? Answer: no. âIt adds another layer of connectivity that you donât need.â
28. Female: uses Facebook to plan events with sports teams Male: uses Facebook to plan senior week vacation No one else but the people in the group can see the plans being made, so itâs secure Using Facebook to invite people to graduation parties and family reunions; âYou can get in touch with your aunt easier on Facebook than with the phone.â
29. Getting ready for college In each group, students reported finding their college roommates through Facebook Used after the decision was made to connect to other in-coming students: âIt made me more excited about going there.â One teen had joined a Facebook group for students with his major. It provides advice on how to prepare for college. Plan to use it to find friends while at college and to stay in touch with high school friends, Will friend people they donât know who are going to go the same colleges next year â âItâs supportiveâ â want to have friends already in place when they arrive at college Male: got a list of incoming freshman who will play soccer at his college; looked them up on Facebook; picked one to room with (happened to be someone he knew years ago) â Facebook âbreaks that barrier of awkwardnessâ to have met online first before arriving at college âWhen I find out who my roommate is, the first thing Iâm going to do is look him up on Facebook.â
30. One boy connected with a group of incoming freshmen via Facebook and met with them in person at a local mall a few months before the start of school so that heâll have a group of friends when school begins. One of the boys uses YouTube to look at the research going on at the colleges he is interested in going to. Facebook can show you what the professors and the programs are like.
31. Current use of blogs and wikis and Nings: Perceived as for school stuff, little transfer Not used for their own purposes; only used when required to do so for school. Little participation in wikis or blogs other than required school use Used a soccer team wiki For school use, the group would rather collaborate face-to-face on homework as opposed to using collaborative educational software.
32. School work and online communication The group agreed that the quality of their work (especially homework) would be improved if they stopped multitasking, but then they would probably be bored. Response: One of the boys says he is usually multitasking while using the Internet; at once uses Twitter, g-mail, NYT website, and does homework. Extra-curricular groups: Facebook is good for creating a group (sports, clubs, etc.) and keeping in touch with group members. Use texting and Facebook during school hours, mostly passing information about whatâs going on in school.
34. Social contact reduced: pushback Female: personal contact is reduced with increased technology use; she spends more time texting now than talking on the phone Technology use can âtake time away from hanging out with your friendsâ â time is spent with the technology instead of on the socialization Boy: Used to have Facebook and MySpace accounts, but doesnât use them now because theyâre not physically active enough, and he would rather be doing physical things; likes the phone because âIâve got to hear you.â
35. Privacy/security Concerns about loss of privacy. One participant suggested that âToo much personal business is put online.â Girl: only accepts friend invitations from people she recognizes â âYou really are letting them in to a lot of personal things,â so itâs a security risk to friend strangers. Some uneasiness among the group members with adults seeing their personal online content Male: used to use MySpace â then one time received messages from people he didnât know, so he felt uncomfortable and shut down his account Boy: used to have a MySpace page, but it was hacked â someone put a racist posting on his page and âI got rid of my MySpace right there.â He still uses MySpace without an account to find music, but he no longer has a personal page. Boy: heâs an artist; doesnât post his art online because then âanyone can use itâ (intellectual property concerns)
36. Privacy concerns: the groups expressed worries about pictures of themselves engaged negative behaviors being online; one boy said he tries to limit both his wild behavior and the pictures of it to reduce the likelihood that potentially damaging pictures will appear online.
37. The group worries about risky behaviors being documented and posted online: âAnything digitalâŠsticks around.â There is worry about risky behaviors within the group and the worry that the proof that it took place might last online for a very long time.
38. Self-protection from information overload Level of Facebook use varies; âSometimes it gets annoying, and I will stop using Facebook for a while to get relief. Then I start up again.â âItâs a matter of over-communication,â and âItâs intimidating.â âThereâs too much inter-connectivity. Overall, itâs just become too much.â âAt a certain point, it does get to be too much.â Texting = too much work, physically difficult
39. The art of texting Text conversations can go on âanywhere, at any time.â Text conversations can go on for days, beyond when one person hangs up. âYou can do clever things with words,â like wordplays and humorous spellings; with text messages âyou can keep them foreverâ and âhave a record of the communicationâ meaning that the medium enables information archiving Texting is âmore fun than a phone callâ â because there cannot be long pauses in a spoken conversation, which means that âa phone call is a lot of pressure.â
40. Textiquette Not offended if people text while talking to them face-to-face, as long as the verbal conversation is kept âfluid.â But, if they donât know the topic of the text messages, they can be annoyed worrying that the person is gossiping about them right in front of them to the person on the other end of the text messages.
41. On frequency Boy: checks Facebook every day â âI stay logged on. I donât even log off.â Male: âYouâre always connected to everyone. Everyone always has their phones on.âTexting is an almost constant activity, but talking on phones is greatly diminished Use texting and Facebook during school hours, mostly passing information about whatâs going on in school. About texting: âItâs a habit.â âItâs routine.â Has been on Facebook every day for the last year or two â Itâs âsomething to do with your spare time.â Sends upwards of 20 or 30 text messages a day â has a small group of close friendsâfive or six peopleâwith whom he exchanges text messages. Sends about 30 text messages a day â does most of his texting with the same three or four people (close friends). Spends about an hour a day on Facebook actively, but leaves Facebook on in the background for three to three and a half hours a day while doing other things online. Sends and receives more text messages during the weekends and communicates with a broader group of friends during weekends than during the week, as much of the weekend communication is related to social plans for the weekend with a larger group of friends. Boy: Only spends about 10 minutes a day actively using Facebook, but according to his phone bills, sends and receives more than 1000 text messages each month.
42. Male: texts all day, even in school; can text in class without disrupting the class Male: doesnât like to make plans with friends using Facebook or MySpace; find texting and calling to be more reliable for making specific plans Male: Texting is the best method because itâs quick enables him to multitask while communicating; can âdo two things at onceâ Texting because itâs the easiest; uses texting for communication with both family and friends; also likes Facebook; doesnât like calling on the phone: âI honestly donât know why I donât call people.â Use texting and Facebook during school hours, mostly passing information about whatâs going on in school. You have to be at a computer to use Facebook, but can text just with a phone If you donât feel like talking to them, you can text, which is faster
43. On Gender Group generally agreed that the girls text more. Female: âWe have so many more questions.â Girls take more pictures than boys; girls post more pictures and create more photo albums than boys; the pictures are mostly of themselves and their friends Girls use more emoticons; girls hold longer conversations
44. Social / political activism Can join Facebook groups, and some of the students do, but not a lot of interest in social networking for social/political activism Question: Use for purposes other than social relationships? Four of the seven have joined Facebook groups, but generally the teens doubted that such groups will have an impact on any causes or issues â âI donât feel like much is going to come out of it.â There is no interaction with any of the other group members, just the initial signing on to the groups Political or social activist uses of social networking? General agreement that they might join a political or social issues group on Facebook, but usually the involvement goes no further than signing up.
47. Phone fear? Phoning is less familiar. No landlines in households Someone else might be listening. No one will call them who has an alternate way. I donât want to talk to anyone who doesnât have my real contact information.
48. Public libraries focus on phone and chat reference. Should we be texting reference & readersâ advisory?
49. Pushback? Too much media/computer time taking away from face to face time Focus on people first and the media second
50. Should we cross the beams? Ghostbusters (1984) Columbia Tristar Home Video. Dir. Ivan Reitman
51. Join them where they live? Facebook presence important? Widgets on the Facebook pages? Show that we can communicate in their familiar landscapes? Communication overloadâmore seamless connection across the various media
53. Follow the birds! Learn about how they communicate first. Keep in contactâkids only ones who can describe their own communication landscape.
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55. Looking at social media with a critical eyeâsocial stratification It wasn't just anyone who left MySpace to go to Facebook. In fact, if we want to get to the crux of what unfolded, we might as well face an uncomfortable reality... What happened was modern day "white flight." Whites were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. The educated were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those from wealthier backgrounds were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those from the suburbs were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those who deserted MySpace did so by "choice" but their decision to do so was wrapped up in their connections to others, in their belief that a more peaceful, quiet, less-public space would be more idyllic. boyd, danah. 2009. "The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online." Personal Democracy Forum, New York, June 30.