Social Networking Among Irish 9-16 year olds

2017

There is little known about how and why most young people use online Social Networking Sites (SNS), from an Irish perspective. The purpose of this research dissertation is to present a qualitative study of online experiences of young people on social networking sites in Ireland. In this study 32 young people took part in two separate focus groups and semi structured interviews to explore their use of these SNSs. The voice of the young person was of vital importance throughout the research process. It was this voice that ensured that data relating to their media usage was from their perspective only and not that of the researcher. Herring (2008) maintains that media scholars view internet interactions through an adult lens and not that of the young person. Young people deem their media usage as quite ordinary and not in any way transformative. Results also indicate that young people use SNSs in a twotiered manner. Facebook and Snapchat are the two most preferred sites. Facebook is us...

2012

Irish medical journal

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have grown substantially, posing new hazards to teenagers. This study aimed to determine general patterns of Internet usage among Irish teenagers aged 11-16 years, and to identify potential hazards, including; bullying, inappropriate contact, overuse, addiction and invasion of users' privacy. A cross-sectional study design was employed to survey students at three Irish secondary schools, with a sample of 474 completing a questionnaire. 202 (44%) (n = 460) accessed the Internet using a shared home computer. Two hours or less were spent online daily by 285(62%), of whom 450 (98%) were unsupervised. 306 (72%) (n = 425) reported frequent usage of SNSs, 403 (95%) of whom were Facebook users. 42 (10%) males and 51 (12%) females experienced bullying online, while 114 (27%) reported inappropriate contact from others. Concerning overuse and the risk of addiction, 140 (33%) felt they accessed SNSs too often. These patterns among Irish teenagers suggest that ...

Social Networking is among the most common everyday activities of all ages. The users are counting in millions, which gives to Social Networks (SN) the power to influence social structures, institutions and the relations that run them. The purpose of this work is to re-approach the matter and to investigate whether children and adolescents in Cyprus use these networks for the same reasons mentioned in the bibliography or if there has been a change. The sample constituted of 101 boys and 160 girls aged 12-18 years old, who replied to a questionnaire and the results showed that the scientific community should continue studying SN, but separating them from the rest of the internet and focus on the need of the users to promote themselves.

ABSTRACT The usage of SNS has been so widespread that they have caught the attention of academics worldwide. SNS are now being investigated by numerous social science researchers. An increasing number of social scientists are developing interest in studying SNS, because of its impact on society. Further, the usage of Social Networking Sites (SNS) among the people of India is evidently increasing, particularly among the Indian adolescent students. It has invariably left a big impact on society in general and adolescents in particular. The present paper throws light on the adolescent students’ use of internet and social networking. It tries to find out the impact of internet and social networking on the adolescents physical and mental health. It attempts to investigate the use of internet and social networking sites by adolescents on gender and demography base.

Journal of Adolescent Health, 2014

Purpose Online communication tools, such as social networking sites (SNS), have been comprehensively embraced by adolescents and have become a dominant daily social practice. Recognizing SNS as a key context of adolescent development, this study aimed to investigate associations between heavier SNS use, and adolescent competencies and internalizing problems. Methods Data was collected in six European countries: Greece, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, and Iceland. Participants were 10,930 adolescents aged 14-17 years (F/M: 5,719/5,211; mean age 15.8 ± .7 years); 62.3% were aged 14-15.9 years and 37.7% were aged 16-17.9 years. Participants reported on their use of online communication tools, and their general competencies and internalizing problems (Youth Self Report). Results SNS are both ubiquitous-used by 70% of adolescents-and engaging, given that 40% of users spend 2 or more hours daily on SNS (labeled heavier SNS use). Heavier SNS use was associated with more internalizing problems, and the relation was consistently more pronounced among younger adolescents. Moreover, heavier SNS use was associated with lower academic performance and lower activities scores, especially for younger adolescents. In contrast, among older adolescents heavier SNS use was positively associated with offline social competence. Conclusions Although heavier SNS use is associated with higher social competence for older adolescents, it is also associated with increased internalizing problems and diminished competencies in academics and activities, especially for younger adolescents. Age, capturing developmental

Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of media stories about social networking. This has also led to a recent upsurge in the amount of empirical research being carried out. Of particular interest is their use by children and adolescents, and to what extent their use is seen as problematic. In this article we briefly examine the issue of social networking in relation to youth.

Social Media in Higher Education

This chapter presents the results of EU Kids Online II project about the children’s and adolescent’s uses of the social network sites. The results showed both the main differences and similarities regarding this issue both at the European and at the country (i.e. Romania) level. Although at the European level one can notice the emergence of different groups of users, in Romania, the use of the Internet is only at the beginning and has no clear pattern. The individual characteristics in the self-efficacy variant positively vary with the using of SNS and, at the same time, none of the negative individual characteristics predicts the possessing of a profile on a social network. The strongest connection exists between having competences regarding the use of the Internet and owning a profile on a social network. Moreover, the results agree with previous researches that highlight a complex influence of the parental mediation on the social behaviors.

Children Amp Society, 2010

Social networking sites have been rapidly adopted by children and, especially, teenagers and young people worldwide, enabling new opportunities for the presentation of the self, learning, construction of a wide circle of relationships, and the management of privacy and intimacy. On the other hand, there are also concerns that social networking increases the likelihood of new risks to the self, these centring on loss of privacy, bullying, harmful contacts and more. This article reviews recent findings regarding children and teenagers' social networking practices in order to identify implications for future research and public policy. These focus on the interdependencies between opportunities and risks, the need for digital or media literacy education, the importance of building safety considerations into the design and management of social networking sites, the imperative for greater attention to 'at risk' children in particular, and the importance of a children's rights framework in developing evidence-based policy in this area.