title: Friendship 2.0: adolescents' experiences of belonging and self-disclosure online.
abstract: This study explores the role that digital media technologies play in adolescents' experiences of friendship and identity. The author draws on findings from in-depth interviews with 32 adolescents (15 girls, 17 boys) ages 13-18 (M = 15.5 years) attending one of seven secondary schools in Bermuda. The adolescents were asked to describe the nature of their online exchanges with friends and the value they ascribe to these conversations. A thematic analysis of their responses revealed that online peer communications promote adolescents' sense of belonging and self-disclosure, two important peer processes that support identity development during adolescence. At the same time, the unique features of computer-mediated communication shape adolescents' experiences of these processes in distinct ways. Gender and age differences show that adolescents' online peer communications are not uniform; the characteristics that distinguish adolescents offline also shape their online activities.
authors.affiliation: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. katharine_davis@mail.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001605:Bermuda; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012933:Social Identification; D061108:Social Media; D060756:Social Networking; D055815:Young Adult