Wired Youth: The Social World of Adolescence in the Information Age

185 Pages·2010·1.19 MB·English

by  Gustavo Mesch

Wired Youth
The debate on the social impact of information and communication
technologies is particularly important for the study of adolescent life,
because in their close association with friends and peers, adolescents
develop life expectations, school aspirations, world views, and beha-
viours. Wired Youth investigates the driving forces of social interac-
tion, such as shared interests and adolescents’ need of diversification
of their social circle, and shows how online activities are closely
associated with offline social behaviour.
This book presents an up-to-date review of the literature on youth
sociability, relationship formation, and online communication, exam-
ining the way young people use the internet to construct or maintain
their interpersonal relationships. Using a social network perspective,
the book systematically explores the various effects of internet access
and use on adolescents’ involvement in social, leisure and extra-
curricularactivities,evaluatingtheargumentsthatsuggesttheinternet
is displacing other forms of social ties. The core of the book investi-
gatesthemotivationsforonline relationshipformationandtheuseof
online communication for relationship maintenance. The final part
of the book focuses on the consequences, both positive and negative,
of the use of online communication, such as increased social capital
and online bullying.
Wired Youth is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students
of adolescent psychology, youth studies, media studies and the psy-
chology and sociology of interpersonal relationships.
Gustavo S. Mesch is an Associate Professor at the Department of
Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa. He is currently
the Chair of the Information and Communication Section of the
American Sociological Association. His main research interests
include youth culture, technology and society, online communication
and the interface of online and face-to-face social networks.
Ilan Talmud is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, University of Haifa. His main research interests
include social network analysis, the internet and society, economic
sociology,organizationandmanagementtheoryandtheoriesofsocial
capital.
Adolescence and Society
Series editor: John C. Coleman
Department of Education, University of Oxford
Thisseries hasnowbeen running for over20years, andduringthis time has
published some of the key texts in the field of adolescent studies. The series
hascoveredaverywiderangeofsubjects,almostallofthembeingofcentral
concern to students, researchers and practitioners. A mark of the success of
the series is that a number of books have gone to second and third editions,
illustrating the popularity and reputation of the series.
The primary aim of the series is to make accessible to the widest possible
readershipimportantandtopicalevidencerelatingtoadolescentdevelopment.
Much of this material is published in relatively inaccessible professional
journals,andtheobjective ofthebooksinthisserieshasbeentosummarise,
review and place in context current work in the field, so as to interest and
engage both an undergraduate and a professional audience.
The intention of the authors has always been to raise the profile of ado-
lescentstudiesamongprofessionalsandininstitutionsofhighereducation.By
publishingrelativelyshort,readablebooksontopicsofcurrentinteresttodo
with youth and society, the series makes people more aware of the relevance
of the subject of adolescence to a wide range of social concerns.
Thebooksdonotputforwardanyonetheoreticalviewpoint.Theauthors
outline the most prominent theories in the field and include a balanced and
critical assessment of each of these. Whilst some of the books may have a
clinical or applied slant, the majority concentrate on normal development.
The readership rests primarily in two major areas: the undergraduate
market,particularlyinthefieldsofpsychology,sociologyandeducation;and
the professional training market, with particular emphasis on social work,
clinical and educational psychology, counselling, youth work, nursing and
teacher training.
Also available in this series:
AdolescentHealth YoungPeople’sInvolvementinSport
PatrickC.L.Heaven EditedbyJohnKremer,KarenTrewand
TheAdolescentintheFamily ShaunOgle
PatriciaNollerandVictorCallan TheNatureofAdolescence(3rdedition)
YoungPeople’sUnderstandingofSociety JohnC.ColemanandLeoB.Hendry
AdrianFurnhamandBarrieStacey IdentityinAdolescence(3rdedition)
GrowingupwithUnemployment JaneKroger
AnthonyH.Winefield,MarikaTiggermann, SexualityinAdolescence
HelenR.WinefieldandRobertD.Goldney SusanMooreandDoreenRosenthal
YoungPeople’sLeisureandLifestyles SocialNetworksinYouthandAdolescence
LeoB.Hendry,JaneyShucksmith, (2ndedition)
JohnG.LoveandAnthonyGlendinning JohnCotterell
AdolescentGambling AdolescentCoping
MarkGriffiths EricaFrydenberg
Youth,AIDSandSexuallyTransmitted MovingOut,MovingOn
Diseases ShelleyMallett,DoreenRosenthal,Deborah
SusanMoore,DoreenRosenthalandAnne KeysandRogerAverill
Mitchell WiredYouth:TheSocialWorldof
FathersandAdolescents AdolescenceintheInformationAge
ShmuelShulmanandIngeSeiffgeKrenke GustavoS.MeschandIlanTalmud

Wired Youth
The Social World of Adolescence in
the Information Age
Gustavo S. Mesch and Ilan Talmud
Publishedin2010byRoutledge
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byRoutledge
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Copyright(cid:216)2010 PsychologyPress
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Mesch,Gustavo,1957-
Wiredyouth:thesocialworldofadolescenceintheinformationage
/GustavoMeschandIlanTalmud.
p.cm. – (Adolescenceandsociety)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-415-45993-8(hbk.) – ISBN978-0-415-45994-5(soft
cover)1.Internetandteenagers.2.Technologyandyouth–Social
aspects.3.Informationsociety–Socialaspects.4.Information
technology–Socialaspects.I.Talmud,Ilan.II.Title.
HQ799.2.I5M472010
302.23'10835–dc22
2009039113
ISBN 0-203-85510-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN:978-0-415-45993-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-45994-5(pbk)
Contents
List of tables and figures viii
1 The information age, youth and social networks 1
2 The internet at home 23
3 Sociability and internet use 45
4 Online relationship formation 63
5 ICT and existing social ties 80
6 The impact of ICT on social network structure 99
7 Online communication and negative social ties 119
8 Summary and discussion 136
References 150
Index 170
Tables and figures
Tables
1.1 Potential effects of information and communication
technologies (ICT) on families with teenagers 13
1.2 Structural characteristics of social networks 18
1.3 Theories of ICT according to forms of embeddedness 22
2.1 Summary of internet effects on external family
boundaries 28
2.2 Summary of internet effects on internal family
boundaries 37
3.1 Prediction of the internet displacement principles 48
3.2 Examples of displacement and substitution effects 51
4.1 Perspectives on online relationship formation 76
5.1 Theories of computer-mediated communication 87
5.2 Structural processes affecting online relationship
maintenance 96
6.1 Kinds of digital divide 101
6.2 Causes for social divide 103
6.3 Social consequences of digital divide 109
6.4 Theories of social capital 116
7.1 Summary of risk factors of online victimization 125
Figures
3.1 Time spent with family, friends and alone by internet
users and non-users 57
6.1 Binding and bridging social capital 114
1 The information age, youth and
social networks
This chapter describes the social implications for adolescents of the
rapid penetration of information and communication technologies
(ICT) into western societies. It is organized through a discussion of
the place of ICT in the information society, the rise of the network
society, and the parallel emergence of ‘networked individualism’,
adolescence as a developmental life stage, and the association of
technology and social relationships.
In most western countries the use of ICT in the workplace and
home has become common. These technologies have been integrated
into the daily activities of many individuals, not as a novel or extra-
ordinary activity but to forge new paths for ordinary and not so
ordinary activities to be accomplished. Many search for news, infor-
mation, jobs and products; people communicate online and offline,
diversifying their sources of information, communication and social
supportintheirdailylives(Duttonetal.,1987;KatzandRice,2002a;
Wellman and Haythornthwaite, 2002). The integration of these tech-
nologies into everyday life seems to be an imperative of the informa-
tion age, a historical period in which information and knowledge are
produced and reproduced at a high rate. Information and communi-
cationtechnologiesarethetoolsthatfacilitateaccesstoopportunities,
knowledge, resources and social capital which otherwise may be
difficult to acquire. The internet is a global network that links com-
puters,andthroughthemgovernments,organizations andindividuals
support economic, social and information activity at a global level.
Spanning geographic boundaries and converting the geography of
locale in spaces of flows (Castells, 2000), the internet transfers infor-
mation in copious volume and in real time, creating what some have
described as a fluid society.