Maintaining and forming social connections online can form a
large part of a young person's time online, and is consistently
ranked as highly enjoyable by young people.1 For many people, online relationships can be
a vital part of their friendship group and their support
network.
Chat clients or instant messaging
services
These allow for real-time communication in a range of formats.
Some of these are text only, such as MSN Messenger, Google Chat, or
Facebook Chat. Other services such as Skype allow for video calls,
and are often used by professionals for video-conferencing. Users
can choose to identify themselves or use an alias or "username."
These platforms can used to keep up with friends and family,
conduct business or meet people.
Forums
Forums allow for users to talk with anyone, usually limited by
interest or topic rather than social groups or location. There are
also chat "rooms" where people can meet. The anonymity provides
both safety and risk, as users do not know who they are talking to,
but also don't risk real life social repercussions while allowing
them to experiment with their self-expression.
Social networking sites
Social networking websites function like an online community.
Facebook, MySpace, Google+, and blogging platforms like Blogspace
and Livejournal are all examples of social networking sites.
Once you have set up your profile, including as much information
as you feel comfortable with, you can begin building your group of
friends. Basic online social networking includes sending instant
messages to your friends via their profile pages, sending emails
directly to them, uploading and sharing your photos and video
clips, and commenting on other people's uploads and daily
activities. This interaction allows young people to stay in touch
and keep on top of what their friends are doing and vice versa.
"Netiquette" (net etiquette) and the culture of different online
communities varies greatly by platform, in the same way that it
varies geographically. For example, Livejournal is structured like
an online diary, and so there is often an expectation of general
politeness, as well as specific manners such as not "outing"
someone by connecting their journal to their real life identity if
they don't want it known. However (just like the real world), many
online forums are filled with people who are deliberately
obnoxious, a behaviour commonly known as 'trolling". This is more
accepted in some places than others.
Facebook has a smaller allowance of text input than blogging
sites, and Twitter only allows 140 characters, so these platforms
are typically more brief, immediate and superficial. Other sites
such as tumblr allow users to curate and share different media
easily, but also allow more character space than Facebook, leading
to multimedia posts with both images or videos and text.
All of the features of a platform, as well as the organic growth
of a community over time, lead to very different cultures on
different sites or even between different groups on the same site.
As such, young people hang out in a variety of different online
societies, and their experiences will be very different. Some
online communities prioritise being "safe spaces", and do not
tolerate discrimination or prejudice, and require that users warn
for potentially distressing content, like strobing images that
might trigger epileptics, or violent content for those underage or
with PTSD. Many will collaborate on ways to make their community
more accessible, like posting videos with subtitles for the hearing
impaired. As such, young people engaging in these communities may
have a high degree of awareness related to diversity and
accessibility. Other communities can have high incidences of cyberbullying,
both randomly and aimed at acquaintances such as classmates.
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Reviews, recommendations and bookmarking
Instead of relying on magazines and newspapers editors to filter
the newsworthiness of events, most young people get their news from
their friends, and may make online friends purely based on how well
someone filters or recommends content, or adds value through
commentary.
Some sites are specifically geared towards information
management, and rely on users to provide information about websites
and pages. Examples include delicious, diigo and pinboard, which
are essentially all bookmarking sites.