Communication of Adolescents on Social Media: New Opportunities

Social media today is an environment people grow up in, where all the spectra of their personal characteristics are embodied. However, the existing empirical data demonstrate contradictory evidence about the impact of the virtual world on the lives of adolescents. Digital socialization in most modern works is often associated with the negative consequences of frequent access to social media. The purpose of this article is to analyze the possibilities that the communicative environment of social media contains for teenagers from the group with problematic use of social media. The materials of the empirical study "Digital socialization of adolescents" conducted in May-June 2022 by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research of Contemporary Childhood are presented www.childresearch.ru by the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (CIRCC MSUPE). The research method is a questionnaire survey implemented online, via CAWI (self-completion of the questionnaire). The sample consisted of 539 people aged 12 to 18 years. The data analysis was carried out in the context of comparing two groups of adolescents with problem-free and problematic use of social media. It turned out that both groups value live communication, and consider social media as an additional opportunity to find new acquaintances and maintain existing personal interaction. The main differences between the groups were manifested in the purposes of online communication. Adolescents from the first group have a social orientation (prompt solution of issues in the group, training), adolescents from the second group have an individual orientation (the desire to freely manifest themselves in an enviroment beyond the control of adults - to say what you want, experiment). The results obtained suggest that social media contain not only risks, but also provide new opportunities for socialization. This is especially true for a group of teenagers with a high level of problematic use of social media. Communication in social media becomes a resource for them in obtaining socio-psychological support, satisfying the need for understanding and feeling "not alone". In addition, they experiment with self-presentation and the creation of desired images. Such tests turn into an important source of personal development, allowing adolescents to better understand themselves and others.