A pair of University of Amsterdam psychologists say 1990s-era concerns that the Internet isolates teenagers in the Western Hemisphere from friends and family are outdated.
Research summarized in the latest edition of Current Directions in Psychological Science (you’ll need to be a member to view article) shows that the great increase in numbers of teens on the Internet and the explosion in social networking web sites have largely done away with concerns that the ‘Net is isolating teens. What’s more, the researchers say new Internet tools like Twitter and Facebook are largely used to build on existing relationships, whereas teens who were on the Internet in its early days were more likely to hang out with strangers. They found that better than 8 in 10 teens use instant messaging to communicate with the same friends they know from school or work.
The psychologists also find it healthy that teens feel more free to talk about their feelings online than they would in person.
More from psychology expert Wray Herbert’s blog.
