Teens and Social Media: A New Landscape

In this new world, many teenagers are facing the challenges of social situations now that social media has become more dominant. That’s why I decided to survey fellow teens in my community to find out how teens build and keep connections. This topic raises several questions: Are the effects of these social media platforms helpful or harmful? Has social media pulled teens away from making connections? Are in-person friendships or even friendships at all important in teens’ lives? These issues are what I researched among my peers at my school, through the use of a survey I created, The Friendship Factor. Through the data and results of my survey, many perspectives were uncovered. The survey was anonymous and allowed students to share their real feelings without self-censorship. The questions I selected reveal not just how teens connect, but also the depth and the quality of those connections.

Online vs. In-Person Interactions

To begin exploring these patterns, I was intrigued to understand the time spent with friends online, compared to the time spent with friends in person. When asked how often they hang out with their friends face-to-face, interestingly enough, over half of the participants answered a few times a week. However, most students reported interacting digitally every day. I think this demonstrates how the frequency of social media interactions surpassed the frequency of in-person interactions. None of the students answered less than every day or a few times a week regarding online usage for social connections. Meanwhile, no one said they hang out with their friends in person every day, and a few people even said they only meet up with their friends once a week or a few times a month. This data reinforces my point that people use digital platforms more consistently than they actually see their friends. This difference shows a clear shift, from before new social media advancements to now, toward digital communication becoming the more dominant form of communication for teens. Alternatively, what if the opportunities that the new advancements brought to connect online are blocking our ability to have deeper relationships?

The Role of Phones in Friendships

The survey included this same question about the role of phones in friendships. A little over half of the participants said that the iPhones have positive effects and help communicate and organize plans for teens to meet up. A small group of participants is in the middle and feels that online platforms do not affect in-person communication, due to the feeling that online conversations are mostly brief, but when they are in person, they hang out for hours. On the other hand, around 35% of the young students believe that the two types of interactions are negatively correlated and that phones suppress time spent among teens in person. One specific reason given was that when teens spend a lot of time on their phones, they spend less time with their friends. In general, the results were very mixed, which leads me to contemplate whether teens have a good grasp on online usage and whether social media and other digital tools are taking away the ability to develop profound connections or providing support and nurturing them. These contradictions go along with the fact that teens are conflicted about the role technology plays in their friendships, even if they rely on it every day.

Social Media: Beneficial or Harmful?

Surprisingly, around half of the participants think social media has an overall beneficial effect on friendships. This exhibits how, although teens know there are some negatives, they believe the good outweighs the bad. In my opinion, some teens are blind sided by the negative effects and don’t always want to believe them. Another visible pattern I found among the responses was the origin of friendships. Some more foreseeable data is that almost all the participants met their friends through school, which shows how important in-person environments still are for teens. None of the participants responded that they met their friends online. According to the results, in-person interactions, such as in school, produce more bonds than online interactions. Another question of the same nature is the feasibility of making friends on a scale of 5. The biggest portion of people chose ⅘. This highlights that most teens don’t struggle to make friends. It was interesting to see that even with heavy online use for social interactions, as seen in previous data, the strongest friendships still seem to grow in in-person environments like school.

The Size and Support of Teen Friendships

When brainstorming questions to ask the participants, I included some that give a general idea of what friendships are like for teens. 38.1% of the participants have 6-10 true close friends. 28.6% have 3-5. This question gives a big picture of the number of close friends each person has. To follow up, I asked how supported the teens felt by those close friends on a scale of 5. The bulk of students answered 4. This suggests that most teens feel strongly supported by their friends, proving the importance of these connections in their lives. Collecting these responses allowed me to understand the number of people students surround themselves with and how big those people are in impacting and supporting their lives.

What Teens Value in Friendship

For my final 2 questions, I took the chance to ask what teens value most in a friend and what friendship means to them in one word. I chose these questions because they reveal teens’ priorities and perspectives. 42.9% of people said that the main quality that they look for in a friend is loyalty. The subsequent majority, with 19% of students, is humor. Some one-word descriptions provided by students about what friendship means to them were: love, home, support, trust, entertainment, loyalty, selflessness, fun, helpful, appreciation, and reliability. These responses propose that teens prioritize loyalty and trust in their friendships, but also value fun, support, and emotional connection. Friendship, for them, is a mix of reliability, care, and shared enjoyment.

Social Media and Teen Connections

This survey indicated how teens build their friendships, how people interact, how they maintain those friendships, and the key things teens value in friendships. Although so much has been uncovered, there are still things that remain unknown. For example, will digital interactions ever really replace in-person bonding? Another concept that remains in the dark is the specific negative effects and experiences that online friendships have caused. Additionally, what particular platforms are helpful and which are harmful for students? It would also be useful to explore how social pressure or online conflict affects the way teens think about their relationships. There is so much more uncharted territory to explore on this topic, and hopefully, one day it will be uncovered.

Reflecting on the Findings

My goal with doing this project was not only to understand these topics, but it was also to spread awareness of these problems and help teens feel less alone in their opinions and struggles. As a fellow teenager, I acknowledge how it can be hard to know what to do and how to manage time spent online and in person. Hopefully, this reflection sheds light on relatable opinions and shared knowledge on trends and patterns in The Friendship Factor. I hope that my research also provides perspectives that will allow people to not make harsh assumptions and have a reason behind their opinions. Ultimately, friendship today sits between two worlds — the digital one and the in-person one — and teens are still learning how to balance both.

Here’s the form if you want to try it.