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Have You Asked for It? An Exploratory Study About Maltese Adolescents’ Use of Ask.fm
Open accessAbstract
This article focuses on adolescents’ use of anonymous social networking sites (SNSs). Their perceptions and attitudes toward one such platform, Ask.fm, are discussed using the framework of uses and gratifications theory to explore motivations for using it. Four focus groups and four interviews were carried out with 22 Maltese adolescents (10 female and 12 male) aged 11 to 16 years. Thematic analysis of data collected was undertaken to identify and develop themes relevant to Ask.fm use. Findings indicate that the platform is a space where adolescents interact with others as part of their identity exploration. The role of anonymity was salient throughout. Ask.fm users were aware of the risks related to using the site; yet, the possibilities for fun, peer acceptance, and identity exploration may be driving them to experiment with this risky behavior. The implications arising from these exploratory findings may be applicable to other anonymous SNSs.
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“Studies suggested that adolescents presenting themselves by playing with different looks (Chittenden, 2010), testing different roles (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009) and answering questions about who they were (Farrugia et al., 2019), and pretending to be someone else (Kennedy & Lynch, 2016; Lichy et al., 2022; Schmitt et al., 2008) tended to explore their identities.”
From A Systematic Review of Social Media Use and Adolescent Identity Development (2025) · cites this paper as Farrugia et al., 2019
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Metadata
- Authors
- Farrugia, L., Lauri, M. A., Borg, J., & O’Neill, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Malta (MT)
- Dublin Institute of Technology (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Farrugia, Lorleen
- Venue
- Journal of Adolescent Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-05-23
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 738-756
- ISSN
- 0743-5584 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-6895
- OpenAlex
- W2804039413
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arrow.tudublin.ie
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Adolescent Research (publishedVersion)
- Arrow - TU Dublin (Technological University Dublin) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Funders
- Università ta' Malta
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media and Digital Communication
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
- Keywords
- adolescents, uses and gratifications theory, online anonymity, identity exploration, risky online behavior, peer acceptance
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- Farrugia, L., Lauri, M. A., Borg, J., & O’Neill, B. (2019). Have You Asked for It? An Exploratory Study About Maltese Adolescents’ Use of Ask.fm. Journal of Adolescent Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558418775365
