Review articleOnline Communication Among Adolescents: An Integrated Model of Its Attraction, Opportunities, and Risks
Section snippets
Online Communication and Psychosocial Development
Developmental researchers agree that the overarching goal for adolescents is to achieve psychosocial autonomy [3]. Within this overarching goal, three developmental tasks are important for psychosocial development [3]. First, adolescents have to develop a firm sense of their self or identity, that is, they need to achieve a secure feeling about who they are and what they wish to become. Second, they have to develop a sense of intimacy, that is, they need to acquire the abilities that are
Identity, Intimacy, Sexuality, and Three Features of Online Communication
Traditionally, adolescents learn and rehearse self-presentation and self-disclosure in face-to-face communication, often with peers and close friends. However, several studies suggest that self-presentation and self-disclosure—in particular to peers and close friends—increasingly take place on the Internet [6], [7], [8]. About one in three adolescents prefer online communication over face-to-face communication to talk about intimate topics, such as love, sex, and things they are ashamed about
Opportunities and Risks of Online Communication: Empirical Evidence
Anonymity, asynchronicity, and accessibility enhance adolescents' control over self-presentation and self-disclosure. This enhanced controllability, in turn, explains why the Internet is so attractive to adolescents. At the same time, it explains why it may be beneficial or risky for their psychosocial development. In the following sections of this review, we discuss the published studies on the effects of online communication on the following three aspects of psychosocial development:
Identity Development
Internet researchers have focused on the following two aspects of identity development: self-concept-clarity and self-esteem. Self-concept clarity refers to the extent to which beliefs and opinions about one's self are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable [23]. Self-esteem is the evaluative aspect of the self, and it usually refers to how adolescents value their self-worth [13], [24].
Intimacy Development
Research has focused on the opportunities of online communication for the following two aspects of intimacy development: friendship formation and the quality of existing friendships. It has dealt with a potential downside of online communication for intimacy development, that is, cyberbullying.
Sexual Development
Research on the effects of the Internet on the sexual development adolescents has been burgeoning in the past years. We focus on the following two aspects of sexual development: sexual self-exploration and online sexual solicitation.
Conclusions, Shortcomings, and Future Research
Existing research suggests several opportunities of online communication, such as enhancement of self-esteem, increased opportunities for formation of friendships, enhanced quality of existing friendships, and enhanced opportunities for sexual self-exploration. It has also clearly revealed some risks including cyberbullying and sexual online solicitation. Research has also shown that the Internet is neither a place where adolescents are exclusively confronted with risks that they cannot handle,
Acknowledgments
The research on which this paper is based was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO.
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