This article was actually more of a research paper, which surprised me given the title and topic. Interestingly enough, the abstract directly states that there are not sufficient existing studies pertaining to this topic, so I guess my assumptions weren’t terribly unique. Even though this research paper had more data then I generally enjoy reading, the topic is timely, interesting, and somewhat surprising.
Something I learned from this article is that computer-mediated-communication differs greatly from face-to-face interactions due to the lack of influence one’s class and attractiveness has upon one’s cyber-self. I was surprised that age didn’t play a larger role in predicting usage of OSNS considering most teens and young adults I know have a Facebook profile, but most of my parent’s friends are not using social networking sites such as Facebook.
One of the most interesting sections I found was in regards to “Anxiety.” The portion that I found most interesting stated, “There might be many lonely and socially anxious people who heavily use OSNS to establish online relationships.” This portion struck me like a blast from the past because one of my closest childhood friends used to be extremely lonely and anxious throughout middle and high schools. He also harbored many online relationships (not simultaneously! =P Get your head out of the gutter) and spent lots of time at home alone on the computer; however, today he is more comfortable in social situations and he forces himself to leave home and meet people face-to-face. When asked what changed, he simply said, “I learned what worked and what didn’t online, now I get to test it in the real world.”
~T
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