Study Suggests Teens Need Social Networking

A study by Yahoo! showed that a third of teens ages 16-24 who don’t have access to sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Orkut suffer from emotional stress and a host of other emotional problems when they can’t access social networking websites.

The most surprising facts from the study said that 71% of of research participants felt ‘cut-off’ when they were unable to login to sites like Facebook.  70% said they cannot maintain a balanced life without these new technologies leading to feelings of being stressed, disorganised and short tempered. 

I’m on the top end of the age scale for this research study.  I would have to say, I do feel cut off when I cannot login to Facebook and keep track of my social network.  I’m a typical specimen because I live on a four-year collegiate campus with nearly 10,000 students.  Our closed off community here on campus is a thriving culture all by itself.  The students here often pour their lives into Facebook. 

Five years ago I couldn’t track what all my friends were doing on a day-to-day if not hour-to-hour basis.  Facebook empowers me to keep tabs on all my friends and analyze their lives and choices.  I sometimes gander at the implications of using Facebook as much as I do.  Some researchers thought Facebook acts as a distraction from daily tasks of its users, even more so now with Facebook’s latest update trending towards information overload.  This research would suggest otherwise for younger users who could feel more burned out if disconnected from these social media hubs.

Do you feel disconnected or burned out if your unable to login to e-mail or social networking sites?  I’m feeling a little stressed,  I have to go and check my Facebook!