Advances in Information Science the Effect of Social Network Sites on Adolescents’

Advances in Information Science

The Effect of Social Network Sites on Adolescents’

Social and Academic Development: Current Theories

and Controversies

June Ahn

University of Maryland, College Park, College of Information Studies & College of Education, 2117J Hornbake

Building, South Wing, College Park, MD 20742. E-mail: ahnjune@gmail.com

Teenagers are among the most prolific users of social

network sites (SNS). Emerging studies find that youth

spend a considerable portion of their daily life interacting through social media. Subsequently, questions and

controversies emerge about the effects SNS have on

adolescent development. This review outlines the theoretical frameworks researchers have used to understand

adolescents and SNS. It brings together work from disparate fields that examine the relationship between SNS

and social capital, privacy, youth safety, psychological

well-being, and educational achievement.These research

strands speak to high-profile concerns and controversies that surround youth participation in these online

communities, and offer ripe areas for future research.

The current tools of teenage communication go by a peculiar set of names. Wall Posts, Status Updates, Activity Feeds,

Thumbs Ups, and Profiles are some of the ways that youth

today communicate with one another. These tools are features of social network sites (SNS), such as Facebook and

MySpace. SNS are part of a suite of Web applications, also

called social media, which utilize Web 2.0 principles. The

term Web 2.0 defines websites that are designed to: (a) rely on

the participation of mass groups of users rather than centrally

controlled content providers, (b) aggregate and remix content from multiple sources, and (c) more intensely network

users and content together (O’Reilly, 2007). Adolescents use

social media in large numbers. For example, a national survey

in 2009 finds that 73% of online teenagers use SNS, which

is an increase from 55% 3 years earlier...