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Is Social Networking Good or Bad For Social Skills?
By
Jaya Saxena
Published May 2, 2010
Modified May 2, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published May 2, 2010
Modified May 2, 2010
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Parents are divided over whether social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook may be hindering their kids' abilities to have deep, meaningful relationships with friends. A new study shows that half of American teenagers send 50 or more text messages a day and that one third send more than 100 a day. Two thirds said they were more likely to use their cell phones to text than to call, and only 33% say they talk to their friends on a daily basis. Now called "digital natives," the kids growing up with the internet and cell phones may have a hard time with things like empathy and social cues. UCLA psychiatry professor Gary Small told the Times, “Even though young digital natives are very good with the tech skills, they are weak with the face-to-face human contact skills."
However, some parents believe the internet is helping their otherwise socially awkward teens learn to interact with others. One father said Facebook was helping his introverted son open up. “For Evan, the No. 1 reason is it’s helping him come out of his shell and develop social skills that he wasn’t learning because he’s so shy. I couldn’t just push him out of the house and say ‘Find someone." Teenagers also say that it helps them stay more involved than ever. Manhattan 15-year-old Hannah Kliot, who has 1,150 Facebook friends, said she usually texts, but will follow up with a real conversation if the topic is serious. “I definitely have conversations but I think the new form of actually talking to someone is video chat because you’re actually seeing them,” she said. "I’ve definitely done phone calls at one time or another but it is considered, maybe, old school." Or, you know, you could actually see them face to face. But that might be way too old school.
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