"However, we have yet to see compelling evidence that these highly wired teens are
abandoning offline engagement with extracurricular activities in favor of having more
screen time. In fact, in many cases, those who are the most active online with social
media applications like blogging and social networking also tend to be the most involved
with offline activities like sports, music, or part-time employment.
This is certainly the case with blogging, where those who are most active offline also
appear to have the most to share online; 35% of teens who engage in three or more extra
curricular activities keep a blog compared with 26% of those who participate in one or
two activities outside of school. Just 20% of teens without any engagement in sports,
clubs, youth groups, or any other extracurricular activity have created a blog."
This is an interesting segment to me. It's another statistic that may have conflicting findings from different studies conducted by different groups, but if this is indeed widely the case, then it is quite notable.
What is it about teens who are more involved in their social lives that calls them to be more involved on the internet, as noted by Pew's findings from bloggers?
However, what might be most interesting about this is the idea that these are the teens that are spending daily time on the internet, yet they are also widely active while offline. How does this compare with our studies on the internet effecting the social engagement of teenagers?
I really like this segment from Pew report because it dispels the assumption that online socializing always replaces offline socializing.
ReplyDeleteKids who are social are going to be social regardless of what medium through which they are socializing. There seems to be some logic that a kid who is very social at school or in other face to face situations is also very soicial online through venues like Facebook