Join us this Wednesday, February 9, for "Trends in Teen Communication and Social Media Use: What’s Really Going On Here?" -presented by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the Girl Scout Research Institute. Register here!Online social networking is indispensable to young people today, but what do we really know about their communication patterns and online lives? What are their preferred technologies for staying in touch and how are they representing themselves on sites such as Facebook and MySpace?
For instance, did you know:
- Ninety-three percent of teens use the Internet, and more than three-quarters of these teens use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace?
- Girls tend to downplay several positive characteristics of themselves online, like their smartness, kindness, and efforts to be a good influence?
- Fully 92% of girls would give up all their social networking friends to keep their best in-person?
Join us for an informative webinar with experts from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the Girl Scout Research Institute. You’ll hear research findings from two new studies that address the above questions and much more! To register for this free event, please click here. Late last year, The Girl Scout Research Institute’s new study titled "Who's That Girl? Image and Social Media", continues to gained significant media traction including articles in Live Science, WebMD, Technorati, Ms. Magazine, Lemondrop, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Mom Logic, Medicinenet and many more.
The nationwide survey, which included more than 1,000 girls ages 14 through 17, finds that girls downplay several positive characteristics of themselves online, most prominently their intelligence, kindness and efforts to be a positive influence. In person, girls say they come across as smart (82 percent), kind (76 percent) and a good influence (59 percent), whereas online, girls consider themselves fun (54 percent), funny (52 percent) and social (48 percent). Girls with low self-esteem are more likely to admit their social networking image does not match their in-person image (33 percent vs. 18 percent of girls with high self-esteem) and are also more likely to claim that the image they portray online is sexy (22 percent vs. 14 percent) and crazy (35 percent vs. 28 percent).