Teens use social networks for the creation and the maintenance of friendships. Most teens are using the networks to stay in touch with people they already know, either friends that they see a lot (91% of social networking teens have done this) or friends that they rarely see in person (82%).
Teens also use the online networks to make new friends; 49% of social network users (27% of online teens) say they use the networks to make new friends. Boys are more likely to report using the networks to make new friends than girls. Teens from middle and lower income families were more likely to say that they use the sites to make new friends than higher income teens. A bit more than a third (37%) of teens from households earning more than $75,000 annually said they used social networks to make new friends, compared with 57% of teens from families earning less than $75,000 annually. Children of single parents were also much more likely to use online social networks to find new friends than teens with married parents.
Teens told us in their own words about how they use social network sites to make friends and communicate with people. For some teens it is how they make new friends “I like it. I just like networking, that’s about it,” said one late high school-aged boy. “…my school is pretty big, so if I didn’t know a person I can meet them through MySpace and just see them at school then. That’s how I make friends, I guess.” Another high school boy echoed his sentiments: “When you look at their profile you get to see who they are and see if they might like the same things you like. You might like how they look or something like that.” And for some teens, high school-aged boys in particular, it is a way to meet and approach potential romantic partners. One high school boy said, “Yes, like if you’re just on there and you’re looking through and you see a good-looking girl on there and she wants to be my friend and you accept!”
For some teens, making friends on social networks is less about finding common ground, and more about avoiding giving offense. One middle school-aged girl told us “My friends will have friends that I don’t know. You look at them…Then you feel bad because they’re like, ‘Oh, well, I just saw you in this play, be my friend.’ And then you’re like, ‘Okay.’ All right, you know, why not.” Another middle school girl elaborated, “I mean, I’m not really making new friends, I’m just not hurting peoples’ feelings. If I know that they’re friends with someone else that I don’t feel like they’re [going to] come and attack me, and so it’s safe.”
16% of teens are connected to “friends” on social networking sites who they have not met in person.
As the above quotes suggest, some social networking teens report that their online friends are people that they have never met in person. One in six or 17% of online teens and 31% of social networking teens have “friends” on their social networking profile who they have personally never met. More than two-thirds (69%) of social networking teens say they do not have unmet friends in their network. Older teen boys (ages 15-17) are much more likely than any other group to say that they have friends in their network who they have never met in person. Nearly half of social network-using older teen boys (47%) have friends in their social network who they have never met. For older girls, only 28% report having people they have never met in their networks. About 1 in 3 (29%) of younger boys report having friends they have never met, and just 22% of younger girls say the same.
Some un-met online friends are connected through other friends…
Out of the small group of teens who have friends in their social networks who they have never met in person, many have friends who are in some way connected to an offline friend, and a smaller number have friends in their network who are in no way connected to online or offline friends. 12% of online teens have “friends” on social networking sites whom they have never met, but who have some connection to their offline friends.