Effects of Social Networking sites

The Effects of Social Networking sites.

Self Esteem

In 2006 a Dutch study was conducted by Valkenburg, Peter and Schouten to investigate the wellbeing and social self-esteem of teens associated with Friend networking sites.

The study showed that positive feedback on profiles enhanced adolescent’s social self-esteem and negative feedback decreased it.

The study showed that the tone of reaction developed from social networking sites feedback varied. Out of 881 adolescents, 5.6% reported that feedback had always been negative. 4.9% indicated that feedback was predominately positive 35% had established a friendship and 8.4% had formed a romantic relationship.

Even though a small percentage continuously received negative feedback on their sites, this has a significant impact on their self esteem.

Harassment and Safety

Psychologist Doctor Larry D. Rosen, from California State University, has done many studies on the effects of social networking sites, especially MySpace. He has found that the media and parents have over exaggerated the threat of sexual predators and harassment online.

He says in one study: ‘Parents, and the media, should stop focusing on sexual predators and start assessing the MySpace actions of teens that may make their adolescent transition easier or may provide additional struggles in a time of a constant search for identity and direction.’ (Rosen 2006).

Dr. Rosen found that stalking is in fact a very rare occurrence initiated through sites like MySpace and often, there was no lasting affect on the ‘victim.’

Cyberbullying is another issue which the media has brought into the public eye.

Annaleise Robertson a psychology student at the University of Sydney says: “It’s no longer limited to the schoolyard, as bully’s can now harass their victims online by posting negative messages or even creating entire sites aimed to victimize another student. Plus once these things are put online, they’re very hard to get rid of.”

However, Dr. Rosen says: “My research shows that not only is it not a “major” problem, but the young internet users are both handling any attempted cyber bullying easily and appropriately but they are not upset by the online bullying.”

It appears that teens today are more aware of the dangers of the technology they use, not only through messages in the media, but also through their own use and experience.

Dr. Rosen’s study shows several responses by teens to being approached for sexual liasons online.

For example

• “Yes. I got hit on by a lesbian.”
• “ya some guy was hitting on me but I just blew him off.”
• “I try to avoid the situation as best as possible.”
• “Perverts always email me but I just ignore their messages and block them on
  myspace so they can’t contact me again.”
• “One time, a guy, probably 18 or 19, kept messaging me on Myspace. He
  continuously asked me inappropriate questions and made perverted remarks. The good thing is that you re allowed to block people and he is of course blocked.”

  (FromRosen, Larry D. Ph.D “Sexual predators on
  MySpace: A deeper look at teens being stalked or approached for sexual liaisons”2006)

Teens are more aware of online dangers than we think.

Annaleise says: “There’s always a tendency I think to get hyped up about the negative effects of new things, especially technology. This happened with TV, and now it’s happening with the Internet and online networking sites.

“While people focus on all the negative aspects like bullying, social isolation and low self-esteem, they tend to neglect the numerous potential benefits of such technologies. For example, it is possible creating a MySpace page may increase a person’s social support network, decrease their social anxiety, and increase their self-esteem and computer confidence.”

Dr. Rosen believes parents are the only people who can censor, or handle their child’s identity online by being more proactive with internet use.

“In my research most parents are unaware of what their children are doing online and how long they are doing it. Parents need to be more proactive about talking with their children and setting up clear, but fair boundaries and limits on internet use,” he says.

“Parents need to talk to their children about what to post and why, so that it does not come back to haunt them in the future,” says Dr. Rosen.

This is becoming increasingly important as more and more employers are looking to the internet to gain more information about potential candidates for competitive jobs.

In a recent study, Dr. Rosen found that parents, who had created a MySpace site themselves, were less worried about sexual predators and stalkers online. By getting a feel of MySpace, parents can become aware of the world their children are engaging with.

However he warns: ‘Do not use your own account to spy on your children — this will just make them more likely to mistrust you and be unwilling to talk with you. One recent phenomenon is for children to create shadow pages where they let their parents view their safe MySpace page while maintaining another where they really reside.’ (Rosen 2006).

Putting yourself out into the music world!!

The band Ladies and Gentlemen.

Sites like MySpace are not only about creating individual relationships. MySpace also offers a space to young musicians to advertise, and put their music out into the world.

Jared Baca, the lead singer in the band ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ says: “MySpace makes it easy to promote our shows, and put our music up without having to pay for publicity.”

“We’ve been able to network with other bands as well as venues, and our fans, the most important people,” he says.

The band first created their MySpace site in November of 2006. They currently have 801 friends. The site allows them to inform people of their upcoming shows, as well as distribute tracks.

Fans are also always able to communicate with the band, provide feedback and keep up to date with their schedule.

The Future

It becomes clear, that social networking sites are not all bad, contrary to popular belief in the media. Dr. Rosen says that they are definitely not just a phase.

“It is a necessity in this day and age where most children are not allowed to socialize outside of school hours and need to fulfill their social needs,” he says.

Social networking sites allow teens to be creative, keep in contact and build new relationships whilst developing an identity and expressing themselves.

Not only are the graphics and applications changing, but also use and purpose.

“I have seen it mushroom from a forum for specific groups to discuss common interests to a place where most teens and pre-teens hang out and communicate,” says Dr. Rosen

References:

Rosen, Larry D. Ph.D. “Memo to all parents of Adolescents: It’s time to create your own MySpace page”, Short report California State University, Dominguez Hills, July 27, 2006, available here.

Rosen, Larry D. Ph.D “Sexual predators on MySpace: A deeper look at teens being stalked or approached for sexual liaisons” Short Report 2006-01, California State University, Dominguez Hills, July 2006, available here.

Valkenburg, P. M., Jochen, P., & Schouten, A. P. (2006). “Friend Networking Sites and Their Relationship to Adolescents Well-Being and Social Self-Esteem”, The Journal: Cyberpsychology and Behaviour, 9(5), 584-590.

Magid, M. and Collier A., MySpace unravelled: A Parents guide to Teen social Networking, Peachpit Press, USA, 2007.

Identity Theft

 

Anyone can be anyone online….

“To this day, I still google myself,” says University of Western Sydney Lecture Tomas Cieslak.

Late last year Tom was made aware that he had a MySpace profile, however the site was a bogus one made by one if his students.

“Initially I was very shocked, and shortly after that I was angry. Even today, I still feel unprotected, especially in terms of my professional image,” he says.

The site used Mr. Cieslak’s picture and full name. Although most of the site consisted of innocent comments, there were some sexual references and also references to his co-workers.

“It was scary walking into a lecture theatre and wondering how many students actually thought it was me,” he says.

Mr. Cieslak approached the human resources lawyer of the university. He says: “She informed me that there was enough to press charges for defamation of character and identity theft.”

However the university failed to act on the information. “I think the University is more concerned about their students than the faculty,” says Mr. Cieslak, who believes they didn’t even look at the information presented site.

In the end, Mr. Cieslak conducted an investigation himself. The creator of the site had made himself the first friend on the MySpace site, which was where Tom began the investigation.

When confronted, the student was apologetic, insisting he created the site for a laugh and wasn’t aware of the serious implications he caused. However seeing as no action was taken, there is a presumption that no consequences exist for those who create similar bogus sites in the future.

Mr. Cieslak contacted MySpace himself, to remove the site; however the team requires one to prove their identity before removing the information. In this case it was quicker to insist that the student responsible take down the material.

Mr. Cieslak is not unfamiliar with social networking systems like MySpace. Being a lecture in and holding a PHD in Sports Management, he uses sites which enable to him to talk to others with similar interests. However being a teacher he is always very careful about the information he gives out.

“As a teacher, you are always warned that one accusation can completely ruin your career.”

This is just one incident where identity theft has occurred.

On the 4^th of August, the Sydney Morning Herald’s front page featured the story about Cathy Wilson, (not her real name) a 25 year old who also had a MySpace account opened in her name.

This site also disclosed her address and phone number as well as demeaning and false information about her personal life and interests.

Before this, another article by the SMH identified a bogus site made for the High Court Judge, Michael Kirby.

Whether for a laugh, or out of boredom, making a bogus profile in someone else’s name can have very serious consequences both professionally and psychologically. It becomes clear that some sort of reform needs to be taken in order to protect people for vulnerability on the internet, and protect their privacy.

PRIVACY

In 2005, researcher Frederic Stutzman looked at how social networking communities (SNC) such as MySpace, Facebook and Friendster present opportunities for sharing identity information. These sites, being most popular with undergraduate students, as it allows them to form a network within their particular institution.

However sharing information can lead to several situations including stalking and identity fraud.

Stutzman’s study, conducted in America, looked at the SNC’s which students in particular participate in, and the information they disclose. The most popular network accessed amongst students was Facebook. Facebook users are able to disclose information ranging from their name and age, to their relationship status and political views.

Graph showing information disclosure by students (Used with the permission of Frederic Stutzman)

The website IdentityTheftFixes.com reveals that people are often not aware of the potential risk they put themselves in by revealing certain information (Hunter, 2006). A the site states, even leaving a comment on a friends page, stating that you’re going on a holiday, can place you at risk by providing valuable information to a criminal, who after browsing other sites, may be able to piece together your address.

A quantitative content analysis was conducted by Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin this year. They see identity as being crucial to the subject of adolescent participation in online social interaction. Cyberspace allows teens to define themselves through values, believes and religion with a sense of anonymity. The study found that the exponential growth of myspace was fuelled by a specific demographic group of teenagers.

Perhaps anonymity is not the correct word because research has shown that the boundaries of anonymity are very blurred when it comes to the internet. The study revealed that with regard to personal information, almost 40% of the profiles included the youth’s first name, and approximately 9% included their full name. 40% of adolescents restricted their profiles so that only friends could access their contents and very small percentage revealed their phone number. Over 81% of adolescent users included their current city while 28% also listed their school. Less than 9% of youth included their full name (38% listed their first name) and approximately 57% included a photograph of themselves (including over 5% wearing a swimsuit or underwear). (Hinduja and Patchin 2007). Also many teens present themselves in a favourable light to gain recognition from their friends and even strangers. Although they may feel as though they are creating this image in private for friends, myspace and other social networking sites have global access.

The internet: a gateway to millions of people and profiles…

 

 

Resources:

Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2007). Personal Information of
adolescents on the Internet: A quantitative content analysis of MySpace. Journal of Adolescence, 2007.05.004.

, “An Evaluation of Identity-Sharing Behavior in Social Network Communities”, School of Information and Library Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005, Full Text

Hunter, Jessica, ‘Identity Theft and MySpace, Your Online Habits Can Put You at Greater Risk of Identity Theft’ Posted October 9 2006 URL:http://www.identitytheftfixes.com/identity_theft_and_myspace.html.

 

 

Does myspace have a hold on you?

Social networking sites are currently dominating the internet. It was a culture I refused to succumb to for so long, until one day I caved. Now I have not only a MySpace but a Facebook too!

As MySpace began to grow, so did a certain mindset in younger people. Common catch phrases emerged such as, “That’s a MySpace photo” and merchandise like a t-shirt saying “I’m in your boyfriends top 8” began to instill an image of dependency or obsession with a system which connects everyone to anyone with the click of a mouse.

This blog will look at how this phenomenon has affected people in different ways. I will discuss issues such as identity fraud, bullying, crime and psychological issues associated with MySpace through research and primary sources.

 

Do social networking sites have a hold on you?