A recent University study indicated that the online behavior of users of social networking sites reflects their childhood social development and interactions.
The research group, which was led by Psychology Prof. Amori Mikami, found that the way well-adjusted teenagers held relationships with one another was similar to the way they interacted with peers on Facebook and MySpace eight years later. The study also found that these students are more likely to use the Web sites as an extension of their currently existing relationships.
A group of 172 students in Charlottesville, aged 13 or 14, was used in the study. Their social tendencies and activities were recorded for use eight years later. The researchers reconnected with the now-20-year-old subjects to ask if they used Facebook or MySpace. If they did, the researchers sent the subjects friend requests so as to document their behavior.
The researchers concluded that well-adjusted students used social networking sites in ways that reflected their face-to-face interactions.
"The way they interacted with their peers at 13 and 14 years old resembled the way they would interact with their peers later in life online, maintaining good, quality friendships," Mikami said.
Children who had behavioral problems at a young age were more likely to use networking sites negatively, such as posting nude photographs of themselves or being hostile to other users.
Though some parents worry that social networking sites preclude their children from normal social behavior, this study suggests those fears are unfounded.
"The take-home message of the study is that youth might be using Facebook and MySpace just to display the same orientations that they do in face-to-face interactions," Mikami said. "It is just a new medium to express the social patterns they have already developed."
Graduate psychology student David Szwedo, who worked for four years with Mikami on the project, agreed that the study shows online and offline relationships are aligned, but noted that online interaction may help individuals feel more connected to other people.
"Some kids with higher degrees of depressive symptoms at one point in time showed fewer depressive symptoms later on," he said. "We are in the process of conducting another study that explores the effects of these networking sites on their well-being"
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