Summary with Chapter 6: Adolescents by Valkenburg - 2017

Generation digital 

The time that adolescents spend using social media (more than three hours a day) has now surpassed the amount of time they spend on entertainment media or playing electronic games. They spend the least amount of time reading books or comic books. Adolescents aren't an homogenous group > divide: early adolescence (age 12-15) and late adolescence (age 16-19). Puberty is thought to begin at approximately eleven years of age and to conclude around fifteen.  

Early adolescence 

Characterized by intense physical changes that, in turn, affect adolescents’ emotions and cognition. Hypothalamus > sending signals to pituitary gland > start of puberty: first menstruation/ejaculation + intense state of sexual arousal.  

Besides the noticeable physical changes that puberty brings, there are other, less obvious changes that have major consequences for the way teens think and behave. These changes take place in different regions of the brain and in different ways. Gray matter is responsible for information processing. White matter consists of the pathways that connect neurons to one another. During childhood, the volume of gray matter increases significantly in many regions of the brain. Around the start of puberty, gray matter starts to decline in volume: pruning > brain is beginning to function more efficiently. White matter increases in volume throughout late childhood and adolescence > faster and more efficient communication between the different regions of the brain. The maturity of the adolescent prefrontal cortex appears to depend on their motivation to keep their appointments, to structure their thoughts, and plan their activities. 

Abstract thought and metacognition: formal-operational stage of Piaget. This thinking refers to thinking that is both logical and abstract. Moreover, early adolescents can reason hypothetically and think about what could happen in specific situations > engage in systematic problem solving. In addition to adolescents’ increasingly abstract thinking and problem-solving skills, their metacognitive skills improve significantly during this period. Once early adolescents have acquired metacognition, the ability to evaluate one’s own thoughts, they are better able to summarize what they have learned or what another person’s train of thought might have been. They can not only indicate what they know, but also say why they know it. As a result of these metacognitive skills, they are capable of introspection (that is, the ability to reflect on their own thoughts and emotions). Not surprisingly, while their metacognitive skills are increasing, their social cognition—their ability to interpret and anticipate others’ desires, emotions, and motives—is also improving. 

Moderate discrepancy hypothesis: children and teens are most interested in media content that departs moderately from their level of cognitive and social-emotional development. Entertainment programs should not diverge too much in content or structure from their cognitive skills. Their advancing brain development means that speed and variety are the norm in this age group. It is not clear whether this new, fast-paced media entertainment environment is changing teens’ preferences for fast-paced entertainment or whether this entertainment environment is just catering to what today's teens gravitate toward. This influence is probably reciprocal. Compared to their younger peers, early adolescents prefer increasingly complex content but this should be plausible.  

children's sense of humor changes when they reach puberty. Early adolescents become interested in complex forms of humor involving irony, sarcasm, and cynicism. In addition, early adolescents begin to prefer spontaneous, witty forms of humor to the ready-made jokes and riddles popular with children. 

As children move into early adolescence, they show an increased interest in horror movies, vampires and high-risk sports. One primary explanation for this is associated with their brain development: increase in the activity of neural axons: associated with the pleasure system of the brain. In particular, dopamine is thought to co-occur with feelings of enjoyment and to reinforce a tendency to do certain activities. Some people think that base dopamine levels are lower in adolescence than in childhood and adulthood, but that levels skyrocket when adolescents have or anticipate having an exciting experience. This is thought to explain why adolescents often feel listless and bored unless they experience new or exhilarating things. The changes in de dopamine system during adolescence may lead teens to act more impulsively than children or adults and to show a greater tendency toward risk taking. This is particularly true when teens are in the company of peers, whose presence kicks the brain's reward system into higher gear.  

While cognitive development is a core aspect of the adolescent years, teens’ social-emotional development is just as significant. One of the crucial goals of adolescence is the development of autonomy (make independent decisions and care for oneself). To gain autonomy, teens have to develop three key social-emotional subgoals:  

1. Develop a stable identity;  

1. Identity consists of two aspects: self-concept and self-esteem. Self-concept is how we see ourselves: who we are and who we want to become. Our self-esteem is the extent to which we value this self-concept. To develop a stable self-concept and positive self-esteem, teens need to experiment with their behavior in order to find out what those in their social environment appreciate or dislike about them. During this period of identity experimentation, teens can be moody, and their self-esteem may waver. Early adolescents tend to be more troubled by day-to-day fluctuations in self-esteem than older adolescents, since they are more likely to base their self-esteem on how people in their environment react to their behavior and appearance. 

1. Imaginary audience 

2. Personal fable 

2. Teens' increased self-focus means that they can become incredibly preoccupied with their appearance.  

3. Two things are important for adolescents trying to develop a stable self-concept and self-esteem: the approval of their social environment and the possibility of influencing that environment.  

2. Develop a sense of intimacy; 

1. Once boys and girls enter puberty, they spend more time with peers and less time with their parents. Close friendships in adolescence play a crucial role in helping youth develop their identity and practice the skills needed for intimacy.  

1. Cliques 

2. Crowds (or subcultures) 

3. Discover their sexual identity.  

1. Understand and become comfortable with one's sexuality. Unlike sexuality in childhood, sexuality in puberty is closely associated with self-consciousness and the ability to think hypothetically.  

2. Although sexuality in television and film has largely remained a staple in teens’ media diets, the emergence of digital media has brought about an entirely new way to access sexual content. Sizable numbers of teens regularly use the internet to obtain information about sex or to discuss moral, emotional, and social issues related to sex. 

3. Online sexual exploration seems to be even more important for certain minority groups, such as homosexual youth. For these groups, online communication can serve as a relatively safe way of exploring sensitive issues. 

Late adolescence 

Late adolescence (sixteen to nineteen years old) is the period that follows puberty. The physical changes continue, but they are less noticeable, and their impact on self-concept and self-esteem is milder than during early adolescence. Differences: 

• Rapid improvement of so-called executive functions: better able to control impulses, allowing them to focus and concentrate on tasks longer. 

• Improved ability to grasp the broader context of a problem or decision: more likely to think about the future and possible careers. 

While peers remain crucial during late adolescence, the relationship between teens and their parents often improves during this time. Parents are more likely to talk to their nearly grown children about adult matters and may also ask them for help and support. Late adolescents still feel a tremendous need to communicate with peers. By this period, many friendships have developed into full-fledged, intimate, and caring relationships that resemble those between adults. The quality of their friendships becomes increasingly important. They also come to see that friendship involves give-and-take, and that loyalty and trust are paramount. Moreover, romantic relationships begin to take precedence. 

During early adolescence, teens move toward autonomy by working to discover their identity, developing intimacy, and beginning to understand their sexuality. This process continues among late adolescents, who are still working on stabilizing their identity and self-esteem. One of the largest differences between early and late adolescence is associated with sexuality. Whereas early adolescents are beginning to discover their sexuality, it is during late adolescence that most teenagers have their first sexual experience with another person.  

Conclusion 

Valkenburg Chapter 13 Social media 

The smartphone generation 

With the increasing affordability of smartphones, we are witnessing a dramatic change in how youth access and use media technologies and content. 

The seven affordances of social media 

Affordance: the possibilities that objects in our environment offer us. 

Adolescents want to attain autonomy (through stable identity, intimacy and sexuality (chapter 6)). To successfully complete these huge tasks, adolescents have to learn two communication skills: self-presentation and self-disclosure. Self-presentation is the presenting of aspects of identity within the normative standards of a certain audience. Self-disclosure is the sharing of intimate information, also according to the normative standards within a certain group. Too much or too little self-disclosure hinders the formation and maintenance of friendships and other social relationships.  

Self-presentation and self-disclosure require practice. Through self-presentation, adolescents practice certain roles in front of a varying audience. By using the feedback that they receive on their self-presentation, they are able to validate their beliefs and behavior and to integrate them in their identity. Appropriate self-disclosure enhances the forming of close friendships and romantic relationships. This happens through the norm of reciprocity: if one party tells something personal, the other is inclined to tell something personal in return. 

While previous generations of teens acquired dexterity in self-presentation and self-disclosure primary offline, the smartphone generation prefers to rely on social media to help with the development of these skills. This preference is due to the affordances of social media, which give adolescents an enhanced sense of control > make them feel more secure and self-assured on social media than in offline situations. How does this sense of control and security develop? > theories about privacy: privacy paradox: just like adults, most teens know perfectly well that social media threaten their privacy, and they are often uncomfortable with it, but do not act accordingly. Broad definition of privacy: not only informational privacy (the extent to which people can control the amount and content of their personal information that is being distributed), but also psychological privacy (our possibility to control when, what, to whom and how we share something about ourselves). Although most affordances of social media may decrease informational privacy, they may increase psychological privacy. Seen in this light, the privacy paradox is less paradoxical than it might seem at first. The affordances of social media may decrease teens’ informational privacy, yet provide them with enhanced psychological control over their communication and allow them to demonstrate their autonomy—which helps explain the immense appeal of social media for teens. 

Theories of social media effects 

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) theories focus on discovering the difference between face-to-face communication and CMC. How do characteristics of CMC influence the quality of interpersonal communication? Hyperpersonal communication model (1990): CMC encourages people to optimally present themselves (for instance, by pretending to be kinder). Meanwhile, the recipients of these optimized self-presentations are free to fill in the blanks in their impression of their partners, which may encourage them to idealize these partners > CMC relationships could become hyperpersonal: more intimate than offline relationships.  

CMC theories, like many traditional media effects theories, are rooted in a reception model. That is, both types of theories assume that media or technologies have a unidirectional impact on recipients. And in both types of theories, it is too often forgotten that users of social media can simultaneously be both recipients and senders of communication. Another issue that has received too little attention in both types of theories is that the production and distribution of media content may have effects not only on its recipients, but also on the senders. This phenomenon, in which our beliefs and behavior exert an influence on ourselves, has been referred to as an expression effect. An expression effect occurs when a sender internalizes the behavior that she shows or the beliefs that she discloses, so that her self-concept or behavior changes. Expression effects are best explained via Daryl Bem's self-perception theory, which postulates that people like to be consistent in their beliefs, attitudes, and conduct. The affordances of social media provide users with an opportunity to experiment with forms of behavior that can influence their self-concept.  

Social-emotional effects of social media 

When it comes to identity formation: self-concept clarity, self-esteem, self-awareness and narcissism. Intimacy: friendships and connectedness, and cyberbullying. Sexuality: sexual self-expression as well as stranger danger. 

Self-concept clarity 

Self-concept clarity is the degree to which out beliefs about our identity are clearly defined and stable.  

• Fragmentation hypothesis: because it is very easy for teens to experiment with their identity online, they are faced with too many different views online > experience confusion and difficulty in integrating all these new views in their identity. 

• Or: social media may improve self-concept clarity because the many different views can serve as a model and sounding board while they develop and corroborate their identity. 

• Expression effect: adolescents differ in the way they use social media, and these differences predict the effects that they experience. 

Self-esteem 

Self-esteem is the degree to which we value ourselves. Two main predictors of self-esteem: the feeling that we have control of our environment, and the approval that we hope to get from that environment. Social media offer teens both, by providing numerous possibilities for control and positive feedback. Studies indicate that online communication increases adolescents’ self-esteem. Negative feedback > decrease in self-esteem. Finally, the benefits of social media on self-esteem are most pronounced for those who use social media to connect with their close friends.35 Overall, then, it seems that for most adolescents, social media are conducive to supporting self-esteem, but for a minority, social media are problematic 

Self-awareness 

Private self-awareness is our tendency to pay attention to the inner aspects of our identity. Public self-awareness is our attention to the way we are perceived by others. Individuals with strong public awareness are very good at predicting how others will respond to them and adjusting their self-presentation accordingly. Adolescents who are more active on social media have greater public self-awareness than their less active counterparts. But: these studies are correlational, which do not allow for cause-and-effect inferences: social media may increase public self-awareness, but it may also be the case that teens with greater public self-awareness use social media more extensively. 

Narcissism 

Narcissists are excessively preoccupied by others’ opinion of them, and they will go to great lengths to be positively assessed. They have an inflated self-image and overblown self-confidence. We should ask ourselves whether narcissism is a negative trait. Some psychologists argue that narcissism, on a modest scale, is conductive to self-development. A modest dose of narcissism is probably adaptive, functional, and beneficial to social well-being. Too much, on the other hand, leans toward pathology and is harmful.  

Friendships and connectedness 

Newer social media applications encourage users to communicate with their existing friends. Recent studies into the effects of online communication have found that online communication leads to increased social involvement. Longitudinal research suggests that social media invite adolescents to share intimate feelings with their offline friends, for instance, about love, sex, and things they would be somewhat embarrassed to discuss offline. This is due to the affordances of social media, which, as discussed, foster teens’ perception of social and psychological privacy. By disclosing something personal to a friend, we invite the friend to share something personal with us. This mutual and gradually more intimate self-disclosure is how friendships and romantic relationships are formed and maintained. It seems that especially for teens, this norm of reciprocity takes place online as well as offline. 

Cyberbullying 

Cyberbullying takes places when online applications are used to insult, exclude, or in any other way hurt others. As with offline bullying, cyberbullying is not an incidental, one-time attack, but comprises purposeful and repeated aggressive actions by individuals or groups, against which the victims cannot easily defend themselves. Cyberbullying occurs particularly often between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, and although boys, in general, bully more than girls do offline, boys and girls seem to have an equal share in online bullying. If differences are found, it is the girls who cyberbully the most. The prevalence of cyberbullying seems to have remained relatively stable (continuing to occur less frequently than offline bullying).  

Cyberbullying is a troubling and undesired side effect of the affordances of the social media. The affordances lead to an increased chance of engaging in uninhibited behavior, and of the impact of that behavior being less visible. They afford greater ease in distributing bullying communications and enhance their visibility among a wider audience. Online and offline bullying are correlated.  

Sexual self-exploration 

Adolescents routinely use social media to obtain advice about sexual issues or to discuss the moral, emotional and social aspects of sex. This applies in particular to gay and bisexual adolescents. More than ever before, increasing numbers of teens are turning to social media as a means of expressing their sexuality. This is particularly evident through two related phenomena: sexting and the sexy selfie. Sexting refers to the sending or posting of sexual messages, photos or videos. Sexting seems primarily motivated by self-presentation. The sexy selfie typically consists of sexy poses rather than nude or seminude body displays. Interestingly, sexy selfies have consequences not necessarily for the sender of the pictures but rather for their recipients. Specifically, teens who are exposed to sexy selfies via social media are more likely than teens who are less exposed to such selfies to subsequently initiate sexual behavior. The researchers suggest that as a result of repeatedly seeing sexy selfies via social media, teens may start to believe that sexual activity is common in their peer group and may feel increased pressure to engage in sexual activities.  

Stranger danger 

Sexual grooming occurs when someone approaches a child or a teen with the intent of eventually initiating offline sexual contact. Sexual abuse is still committed more often by offline acquaintances than online strangers. The teens who are the most vulnerable to grooming are girls and gay boys. Furthermore, teens who are uncertain about their sexual identity, who were abused as children, and who have already demonstrated offline risk behavior are also particularly vulnerable.  

Cognitive effects of social media 

Media multitasking (using multiple media at the same time). There are two main explanations for the dramatic uptick in media multitasking: 1) changes in the traditional media landscape increasingly call on media consumers to be able to multitask while consuming the content; 2) many of today's television programs assume some level of multitasking. Smartphones accustom us to ingest “fast entertainment". Concern: as youth become acculturated to the continual switching of activities and attention, they will eventually lose the ability to concentrate.  

Studies on the relationship between media multitasking and cognitive control: 

• Media multitasking is negatively related to sustained attention, which implies that teens more often engage in media multitasking are less able to concentrate on relevant tasks. Media multitasking was unrelated to other aspects of cognitive control.  

• Fervid media multitaskers switch between tasks more efficiently than their less ardent counterparts. 

• But: correlational studies > is there causation? 

Shallow thinking: whether social media can harm our capacity for concentration and contemplation as well as our ability to store and recall information. Digital dementia: we no longer need to make effort to store information in our memories > we no longer need to train our own memory > our memory functions will decline over time. Although popular assumptions claim that today's socially mediated world is creating a population of shallow thinkers, there is insufficient evidence to back up this assertion.