Survey asks how teens socialize online

By Pam Agnew, ABC

THE Pew Internet & American Life Project has released results of a survey of how online American teens use social networking sites.

The research was conducted by telephone from October 23 through November 19, 2006 among a national sample of 935 youths ages 12 to 17, according to a Pew news release.

The survey found that 55% of online teens have created a personal profile online. Most of them use social networking site MySpace.

Teens who use social networking sites use them intensely, with 80% saying they visit at least weekly.

• 48% said they visit social networking websites daily or more often;
• 26% said once per day;
• 22% said several times per day;
• 17% said three to five days per week;
• 15% said one to two days a week; and
• 20% said every few weeks or less often.

Communication preferences

Social networking sites give users a variety of ways to communicate. They can send private messages to another user or they can use more public methods such as posting messages to a friend’s page or wall, sending a group message to their network, commenting on a friend’s blog, or by giving e-props icons to a friend’s page.

The list below shows the most common ways teens communicate with people both in and out of their personal network:

84% post messages to a friend’s page or wall
82% send private messages to a friend within the social networking system
76% leave comments on a friend’s blog
61% send a bulletin or group message to all of your friends
33% Wink, poke, give “e-props” or kudos to your friends

Of course, what people say they do and what they actually do can be two different things.

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