Friendship 2.0: Adolescents' experiences of belonging and self-disclosure online
Abstract
This study explores the role that digital media technologies play in adolescents' experiences of friendship and identity. The author draws on findings from in-depth interviews with 32 adolescents (15 girls, 17 boys) ages 13-18 (M = 15.5 years) attending one of seven secondary schools in Bermuda. The adolescents were asked to describe the nature of their online exchanges with friends and the value they ascribe to these conversations. A thematic analysis of their responses revealed that online peer communications promote adolescents' sense of belonging and self-disclosure, two important peer processes that support identity development during adolescence. At the same time, the unique features of computer-mediated communication shape adolescents' experiences of these processes in distinct ways. Gender and age differences show that adolescents' online peer communications are not uniform; the characteristics that distinguish adolescents offline also shape their online activities.
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Need to belong may be a key contributor to SNSs excessive use and addiction because SNSs offer instant access to friends and the need to be accepted by communities is an intrinsic human need.
“Second, as SNSs offer instant and unfettered access to their friends, individuals may turn to SNSs to derive their sense of belonging (Ho, Lee, & Liao, 2016;Lee et al., 2017a).Thus, need to belong may be a key contributor of SNSs excessive use and addiction as the need to be accepted by communities is an intrinsic human need (Davis, 2012;Santrock, 2008).”
From Till logout do us part? Comparison of factors predicting excessive social network sites use and addiction between Singaporean adolescents and adults (2017) · cites this paper as Davis, 2012
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References 63 · Cited by 355
- Authors
- Davis, K.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Davis, Katie
- ORCID
- Davis, Katie
- Venue
- Journal of Adolescence
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-04-02
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1527-1536
- ISSN
- 0140-1971 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9254
- OpenAlex
- W2031317389
- Cited by
- 355
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 48.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Adolescence (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Digital Communication and Language
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Keywords
- online friendship, adolescents, sense of belonging, self-disclosure, identity construction, computer-mediated communication, gender differences, age differences, digital media
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Psychology, Adolescent, Bermuda, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Self Disclosure, Social Identification, Internet, Friends, Qualitative Research, Young Adult, Social Networking, Social Media
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