THE OPPORTUNITIES for adolescents to form and
maintain relationships on the Internet have
multiplied in the past few years. Social networking
sites have rapidly gained prominence as venues to
relationship formation. Social networking sites
vary in the types of relationships they focus on.
There are dating sites, such as Match.com, whose
primary aim is to help people find a partner. There
are common interest networking sites, such as
Bookcrossing.com, whose aim is to bring people
with similar interests together. And there are friend
networking sites, such as Friendster and MySpace,
whose primary aim is to encourage members to establish
and maintain a network of friends.
The goal of this study is to investigate the consequences
of friend networking sites for adolescents’
social self-esteem and well-being. Given the recent
worldwide proliferation of such sites and the everexpanding
numbers of adolescents joining up,
these sites presumably play an integral role in adolescent
life. Friend networking sites are usually
open or semi-open systems. Everyone is welcome
to join, but new members have to register, and
sometimes the sites only allow members if they are
invited by existing members. Members of the sites
present themselves to others through an online
profile, which contains self-descriptions (e.g., demographics,
interests) and one or more pictures.
Members organize their contacts by giving and receiving
feedback on one another’s profiles.
Although friend networking sites have become
tremendously popular among adolescents, there is
as yet no research that specifically focuses on the
uses and consequences of such sites. This is remarkable
because friend networking sites lend
themselves exceptionally well to the investigation
of the social consequences of Internet communication.
After all, peer acceptance and interpersonal
feedback on the self, both important features of
friend network sites, are vital predictors of social
self-esteem and well-being in adolescence.1 Therefore,
if the Internet has the potential to influence