A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sites
Young people are often seen as a generation that shares too much, too openly online. This paper provides support for taking a developmental perspective to understand individuals behaviour’ on social network sites in the forms of sharing information and the type of contacts. Adolescents, young adults...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Masaryk University
2014-07-01
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| Series: | Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberpspace |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/4306 |
| _version_ | 1797248088976392192 |
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| author | Wouter M. P. Steijn |
| author_facet | Wouter M. P. Steijn |
| author_sort | Wouter M. P. Steijn |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Young people are often seen as a generation that shares too much, too openly online. This paper provides support for taking a developmental perspective to understand individuals behaviour’ on social network sites in the forms of sharing information and the type of contacts. Adolescents, young adults, and adults’ use of social network sites was investigated and compared to developmental expectations based on the needs for relationship development and identity development. Data were gathered by means of an online survey among 1008 respondents in the age range of 12 to 83-year-old. The results showed that adolescents have most contacts and were most likely to add unknown contacts, while young adults disclosed most information and adjusted privacy settings most often. These results match expectations based on adolescents’ and young adults’ greater need for relationship and identity development compared to adults. Implications of these findings in relation to future regulations of online behaviour are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T20:09:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9fd2943c5aa04e3ba613cb7b0025564f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1802-7962 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T20:09:02Z |
| publishDate | 2014-07-01 |
| publisher | Masaryk University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberpspace |
| spelling | doaj.art-9fd2943c5aa04e3ba613cb7b0025564f2024-03-23T13:15:30ZengMasaryk UniversityCyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberpspace1802-79622014-07-018210.5817/CP2014-2-5A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sitesWouter M. P. SteijnYoung people are often seen as a generation that shares too much, too openly online. This paper provides support for taking a developmental perspective to understand individuals behaviour’ on social network sites in the forms of sharing information and the type of contacts. Adolescents, young adults, and adults’ use of social network sites was investigated and compared to developmental expectations based on the needs for relationship development and identity development. Data were gathered by means of an online survey among 1008 respondents in the age range of 12 to 83-year-old. The results showed that adolescents have most contacts and were most likely to add unknown contacts, while young adults disclosed most information and adjusted privacy settings most often. These results match expectations based on adolescents’ and young adults’ greater need for relationship and identity development compared to adults. Implications of these findings in relation to future regulations of online behaviour are discussed.https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/4306online relationshipsself-disclosureself-presentationinformation sharingsocial network sitesdevelopment |
| spellingShingle | Wouter M. P. Steijn A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sites Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberpspace online relationships self-disclosure self-presentation information sharing social network sites development |
| title | A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sites |
| title_full | A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sites |
| title_fullStr | A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sites |
| title_full_unstemmed | A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sites |
| title_short | A developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents, young adults, and adults on social network sites |
| title_sort | developmental perspective regarding the behaviour of adolescents young adults and adults on social network sites |
| topic | online relationships self-disclosure self-presentation information sharing social network sites development |
| url | https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/4306 |
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