Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2010). Changes in adolescent online social networking behaviors from 2006 to 2009. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1818–1821. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.009
The topic of the article?
Determining how big the extent is to which adolescent information on a SNS called MySpace and how it has changed in the years of 2006 and 2009
Brief summary of the introduction of the paper
Adolescents have accounts that are online social networking sites that usually start between the ages of 12 to 17. The most popular social networking site that has been used by teens is MySpace, in which adolescents contribute to about one quarter of them being MySpace users. MySpace gives users the opportunity to share their digital representation of themselves, their interests, affiliations, likes or dislikes and connect with friends too. MySpace also allows users to share photos, videos or audios however they please. Although, MySpace have tied to a variety of societal ills, such as harassment, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, alcohol and drug abuse, hate crimes, planned or executed bombings, planned school shootings, suicide, and murder. As adolescents become more familiar with MySpace, behavior appears to be seen as unwise as the increasing number of prospective employers, teachers, counselors, administrators, law enforcement, and college admissions coordinators search through MySpace to acknowledge if adolescents they know are demonstrating differences in character.
What is the research question? Hypotheses?
They have hypothesized that in recent years, teens have reduced the frequency with which they are either posting revealing pictures, cursing on publicly-viewable pages, demonstrating tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana use and sharing personal information that could be used to locate them.
Method
They randomly select a sample of profiles for analysis by using a random number generator. Profiles from the years of 2006 and 2009 were carefully reviewed by trained research assistants who looked for specific at-risk, problematic, or identifying information. A random sub-sample of profiles were also re-coded to then being compared with the original coding using a tool called Cohen’s Kappa statistic. Once all of the profiles from both time periods were analyzed, they used an independent-samples t-test to determine if the differences observed were statistically significant.
What are the results?
The research suggests that a number of MySpace users have abandoned their profiles. In 2009, 44.1% of profiles sampled were invalid or had been deleted. They have found that over 50% of the remaining “valid” profiles had not been updated in over one year (9.2% in 2006) and less than 18% of the profiles in 2009 had been logged onto in the week prior to analysis. MySpace users have chosen to restrict access to their profile by making it “private” (11.5% in 2006; 37% in 2009) to prevent people they don’t know from viewing their profile.
What are the implications?
There were many differences between the adolescent profiles in 2006 and in 2009 when reviewed, which were the variables in this experiment. Adolescents were more likely to restrict access to their profile in 2009 compared to 2006. Only a few of the population of adolescents included information that was personal to their MySpace. For the total population of MySpace users, more adolescents abandoned their profiles and less are actively using the site.
How should one build upon the findings?
Based on this research, future research should continue to elaborate more on what causes adolescents to make them feel as if they have to deactivate their profiles or become private with certain information. What can be the possible outcomes and how has their behaviour changed overtime from the years of 2006 to 2009? Have they posted less or more during those years? With further research, we would know how social networking sites like MySpace have affected adolescents over time.
