Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

“TikTok Is My Life and Snapchat Is My Ventricle”: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Role of Online Communication Tools for Friendships in Early Adolescents

“TikTok Is My Life and Snapchat Is My Ventricle”: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Role of Online... Early adolescents are frequent users of online communication tools (OCTs). Yet, we have limited knowledge about how OCTs influence this population and their friendships. We sought opinions of 938 Austrian early adolescents on the role of OCTs for their friendships via a questionnaire and 207 focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the focus groups. We found that despite the emergence of some online-specific aggression, OCTs are perceived as beneficial for friendships. Early adolescents use online spaces naturally and differentiate little between online and offline communication. Only when it comes to high levels of intimacy, early adolescents also need an offline setting to fulfill their communication need. Online communication tools, especially newer forms such as online gaming, can surpass a mere communicative function and provide a space for building and maintaining friendships. In the future, OCTs should be considered as a tool to facilitate positive development in early adolescents. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journal of Early Adolescence SAGE

“TikTok Is My Life and Snapchat Is My Ventricle”: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Role of Online Communication Tools for Friendships in Early Adolescents

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/tiktok-is-my-life-and-snapchat-is-my-ventricle-a-mixed-methods-study-xWzkdQrsTg

References (81)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021
ISSN
0272-4316
eISSN
1552-5449
DOI
10.1177/02724316211020368
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Early adolescents are frequent users of online communication tools (OCTs). Yet, we have limited knowledge about how OCTs influence this population and their friendships. We sought opinions of 938 Austrian early adolescents on the role of OCTs for their friendships via a questionnaire and 207 focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the focus groups. We found that despite the emergence of some online-specific aggression, OCTs are perceived as beneficial for friendships. Early adolescents use online spaces naturally and differentiate little between online and offline communication. Only when it comes to high levels of intimacy, early adolescents also need an offline setting to fulfill their communication need. Online communication tools, especially newer forms such as online gaming, can surpass a mere communicative function and provide a space for building and maintaining friendships. In the future, OCTs should be considered as a tool to facilitate positive development in early adolescents.

Journal

The Journal of Early AdolescenceSAGE

Published: Feb 1, 2022

There are no references for this article.