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Janice Atkin, Education Sector Manager, talks about the idea of social connectedness among young people...

I am often asked "how do young people with hundreds of "friends" on Facebook manage to keep up with them and stay connected with them all?" Generally my answer is that those young people who are sociable personalities probably do it very easily because they have mastered the technology of social networking.

However, as I was reading an article http://communication-solutions.tmcnet.com/topics/communication-solutions/articles/76439-social-networks-both-personal-mass-media.htm this morning by Gary Kim it got me thinking about this question.

The article was discussing a new study by Professor Robin Dunbar from Oxford University that suggests social networking sites such as Facebook cannot increase the number of "meaningful relationships" any single person can have. Professor Dunbar's research asserts that humans are only capable of maintaining a maximum of 150 friendships. This figure has come to be known as Dunbar's number.

The theory behind "Dunbar's number" evolved during the 1990s and relates to the concept that the size of our neocortex, the part of the brain used for conscious thought and language, limits our capacity to manage social relationships that exceed 150 friends, regardless of how sociable we are. Professor Dunbar is now studying social networking websites to see if the "Facebook effect" has stretched the size of social groupings and therefore our capacity for maintaining more friendships. Preliminary results suggest it has not.

Professor Dunbar states, "The interesting thing is that you can have 1,500 friends online but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world".

This got me thinking about the nature of the relationships I have with my Facebook "friends".  If you look at the surface of my Facebook account I have 128 "friends". But the reality is that I probably am meaningfully connected both online and offline with only about 30 of these people. My other friends tend to be people I went to Uni with, people I have worked with, played sport with or went to school with. I watch these people's status updates with some interest but not necessarily with a high level of engagement. However, it does make me feel connected to them and I know that the random conversations that we have once or twice a year always take me back to the good times we spent together - definitely giving a boost to my wellbeing.

But does this online social networking necessarily equate to social connections and can these online friendships for young people translate into supportive networks that can help them get through tough times they might experience?

What do you think? Have you got meaningful relationships with more than 150 friends? Are you using Facebook or other social networking sites to maintain some of these friendships? Do you feel connected to your online friends? Is your online network just an extension of your offline network, reinforcing connections that you also nurture offline?

"But my clients don't use technology!" Challenging myths regarding diverse young people's use of information communication technology

Michelle Blanchard, PhD Candidate, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne & Senior Research Officer, Inspire Foundation

Four years ago, the Inspire Foundation was funded by VicHealth (www.vichealth.vic.gov.au) to research the potential to use information communication technology to promote social and civic participation for young people experiencing social, cultural or economic marginalisation.  Our first step was to do some mixed methods research with diverse young Victorians, 97 in total, to explore how they currently used information communication technology.  We also interviewed 22 youth service providers.  Going into the project, and based on our own experiences working directly with a diverse range of young people, my colleagues and I hypothesised that the young people we spoke to would have significantly limited access to information communication technology (predominately mobile phones and the internet.

Our participants came from a diverse range of backgrounds and included young people who, for a variety of reasons, were at greater risk of mental health difficulties.   Recruited from face to face youth services, they included young people who were: indigenous, culturally or linguistically diverse, same-sex attracted, living with a disability or chronic illness, at risk of homelessness or from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Speaking with youth service providers we routinely heard that their clients had limited access to technology, would not use it to seek help or support and would find it difficult to engage with technology based programs.  The reasons they cited for this included: limited income to spend on technology and access, limited literacy skills and other life priorities.

To our surprise, we found that all, bar three, of the participants in the study had access to the internet.  A similar number had access to mobile phones.   The young people we spoke to used the internet regular to complete homework, keep in touch with friends and play games.  What we did find was that these young people often experienced challenges with the quality of their connection to the internet.  They were more likely to be using a dial up connection and while 42% had access to the internet at home, others relied on public internet connections (such as libraries) or their friends to secure access.  Having sufficient phone credit was an issue for some, but others were extremely savvy in their use of mobile phones, using different phone plans at different times of the day to maximise value.

This project highlighted for us, what a colleague recently termed, a 'digital disconnect' between how these young people were using technology and how those who cared for them understood their technology use. Assumptions that all young people experiencing marginalisation would not have access to technology simply did not hold true.  Similarly, the activities they undertook online did not differ significantly from other groups of young people, although we found that the social networking sites Bebo (www.bebo.com) and Hi5 (www.hi5.com) were utilised by some participants, rather than the popular MySpace (www.myspace.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com) sites.

Through reviewing these results and the e-health literature, we concluded that provided that quality access to technology could be provided,  there is indeed potential to use information communication technology to engage with and promote positive mental health for young people experiencing social, cultural or economic marginalisation.

You can read more about this study and access a report of our findings here (http://www.inspire.org.au/what-we-do-actnow-bridging-the-digital-divide-youth-action-project.html)

Share your experiences

Sharing your experiences of using technology in your practice will help others navigate this emerging practice.  Have you used information communication technology with young people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds?  Are there any technologies you've found more or less effective?  Let us know.

Janice Atkin, the Reach Out Pro Teachers Network Project Manager, writes about Safer Internet Day...

Yesterday marked Safer Internet Day in more than 50 countries across the world. The day promotes safer use of online technology and in particular the Internet and mobile phones. This year's theme was ThinkB4Upost. The focus is on educating children and young people in particular to take care when posting personal information, photos and stories on social networking sites.

Many people using social networking sites post information or photos of themselves without thinking about the repercussions. Many young people and adults who are new to using social networking sites don't realise that once a photo, image or comment is posted on a site it is published forever.

Often the terms and conditions of a social networking site state that any content uploaded on the site becomes the property of the website, this is the case with Facebook. This means that Facebook can use images, comments and other content in any way the like.

With most people using their full names as their identity when registering for a social networking profile it creates another issue. Prospective employers are now doing Google searches on applicants for jobs to see if they have any skeletons in the closet. Might not be a good outcome if your prospective employer sees those photos from the party on the weekend!

Social networking sites also have the ability for other people to post pictures of you online and tag your name against them, once again identifying you to anyone who has access to their content.

So, what do you need to think about before you post online. Here's some tips that will keep your personal info and images safe online.

• Always be selective about what you publish and who you allow to see it
• Choose an identity that is non-gendered + anonymous where possible
• Adjust your privacy settings to 'friends only'. This is particularly important on Facebook as the default for new content is for everyone to be able to view it.
• Never post content that might identify where you live, work, hang out or go to school

Group photos are safer than individual photos but always make sure that anyone in your photo is happy to have it published online and always ask them if they are happy to be tagged in the photo before you do it.

Always ask yourself "Would you be OK with a prospective employer seeing this content?" before you press the publish button. Once its published its hard to get it removed. And most importantly... never share your login and password with others.

Join the discussion

Do you have any experiences with personal information that was published online without permission?

What steps have you taken to protect yourself online?

What advice do you give to young people you work with about how they can protect themselves online?