Online and Offline Social Networks : Use of Social Networking Sites by Emerging Adults

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 29 (2008) 420–433

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Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Online and offline social networks: Use of social networking sites by emerging adults☆
Kaveri Subrahmanyam a,b,⁎, Stephanie M. Reich c, Natalia Waechter b,d,e, Guadalupe Espinoza b,d a b c d e

Department of Psychology, California State University, Los Angeles, United States Children 's Digital Media Center, UCLA/CSULA, United States Department of Education, University of California, Irvine, United States Department of Psychology, UCLA, United States Austrian Institute of Youth Research, Vienna, Austria

a r t i c l e

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a b s t r a c t
Social networking sites (e.g., MySpace and Facebook) are popular online communication forms among adolescents and emerging adults. Yet little is known about young people 's activities on these sites and how their networks of “friends” relate to their other online (e.g., instant messaging) and offline networks. In this study, college students responded, in person and online, to questions about their online activities and closest friends in three contexts: social networking sites, instant messaging, and face-to-face. Results showed that participants often used the Internet, especially social networking sites, to connect and reconnect with friends and family members. Hence, there was overlap between participants ' online and offline networks. However, the overlap was imperfect; the pattern suggested that emerging adults may use different online contexts to strengthen different aspects of their offline connections. Information from this survey is relevant to concerns about young people 's life online. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Available online 15 August 2008 Keywords: Online communication Interconnection Intimacy Friend networks Emerging adults

1. Introduction Over the past decade, the communication uses of the Internet have become a very

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