OFcom referance (794221), страница 11
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They are not directly comparable dueto differences in the question asked.41Social NetworkingThe majority of children (59%) reported that they had used social networking sites to makenew friends. Although this was significantly lower than for other activities such ascommunicating with friends and family, and browsing profiles, it showed that many childrensaw this as an important use of social networking sites.Fig 20: Reasons for using social networking sites – children0%20%40%60%80%100%Stay in touch with friends / family they see a lot92%Look at his / her page / other people's pages or profile92%79%Stay in touch with friends / family they rarely see in personMake new friends59%Q: Do you ever use social networking sites for any of the following?Base: All children who have a page/profile on a social networking site (220)Source: Ofcom – Children, Young People & Online Content, October 2007Qualitative discussions with social networkers confirmed that communicating with knowncontacts is the primary reason that most people use social networking sites.
This was trueacross the range of age groups we spoke to. For children, due to differences in surveyquestions it is not possible to say what proportion use social networking sites to contactpeople they don’t already know. However, our research for Ofcom’s submission to the ByronReview did show that 59% of children who used social networking sites claimed to do so tomake new friends, without specifying whether these were people previously unknown tothem or not.Sometimes there is a real buzz when you get to school about what happened on Bebo thenight before – Boy 15, rural/semi-ruralIt’s good that you can stay in touch with people.
There’s no way that certain people from uniI’d be in touch with, but luckily by being on Facebook, they were able to get back in touch sothat was really good. It’s kind of; if you’re not on one of those sites then you’re missing out –Female 26, rural/semi-ruralPeople using social networking sites to bully, lie, start rumours and set upfake profilesWhile it is clear that there are many benefits to communicating on social networking sites,whether keeping in touch, managing relationships or receiving positive feedback from peers,there is also the potential for people to make negative or upsetting comments in a verypublic way.In interviews this was a common drawback mentioned by younger users of social networkingsites, although only a minority had actually witnessed it.
Unlike in the real world, youngerusers felt that social networking sites did not have firm rules, social conventions or obviousboundaries. This meant that users could behave in whatever way they liked without any42Social Networkingformal constraints. A few users reported that, in their experience, some people abused thatfreedom.Some younger respondents who were committed users of these sites reported using them‘to get back at people they had fallen out with’, by posting rude or abusive message on theirsites or even going so far as to set up a fake site in the person’s name and posting obscenemessages about them.We set up a fake page for a girl at school who we fell out with; we only did it for a laugh andtook it down after about a week – Girl 14, rural/semi-ruralIt was going round the school, [that this girl] had had an argument with another girl and shetook her picture and put it on her site but she didn’t tell the girl she had and she wrote badthings about her to other people and the site went round school and they had another bigargument - Girl 15, urban/suburbanContact with old offline friendsSecond only to maintaining contact with friends and family seen at least occasionally,regaining contact with old friends is a main reason for adults to use social networking sites.For some people this contact is positive and provides a way to stay in touch that theyconsider would be impossible otherwise.However, there is a flipside to this.
Not every long-lost acquaintance is necessarily welcomeas a ‘friend’. A social networking site user might easily receive requests for contact frompeople they would prefer to forget.Older users (aged over 30, and often within the Faithful segment), were most likely tomention this drawback. While they enjoyed being contacted by old friends who they liked,they dreaded being contacted by people from their past who they were happy to have losttouch with.
For some people this was particularly the case with regard to their ex-partners.What do I do? I really worry that certain people from school will just come back and hauntme - Female 26, rural/semi-ruralIn some of these cases an interesting tension emerged. While users often had no wish to becontacted by certain people from their past, some users were reluctant to take the step ofblocking them from being their ‘friend’. This was because ‘they didn’t want to hurt theindividual’s feelings’ by not accepting them as their ‘friend’.Some, although not the majority, did mention using social networking sites tocommunicate with people they didn’t already knowThose who had communicated with people they did not know offline appeared to participatein this communication in two different ways: using social networking sites to communicatewith, and eventually meet, new people, or using the sites just to talk to new people withoutmeeting them.Most people we spoke to who used social networking sites to meet people they didn’t knowin person did so for dating purposes.
Single people of all ages and both genders claimed43Social Networkingthat social networking sites were exciting venues for meeting new romantic interests. Oldersingle users were more interested in meeting people who shared their interests rather thanthose who just looked attractive - this was more frequently a criterion among younger users.Social networking sites were felt to offer great opportunities and a cheap alternative to onlinedating.I used to be a member of Match.com [a paid-subscription dating site], but there is no reasonto pay anymore as you can use Facebook for free – Female 29, rural/semi-ruralI’m a single mum and at home with the kids most of the time, it’s a great way to meet newpeople – Female 32, urban/suburbanWhile using social networking sites in this way emerged as a strong characteristic amongteenagers and people in their early 20s, it was also evident among older users, particularlyfemale single parents, who found it difficult to get out and meet new people.Case studyAlice is a single mother, aged 36, living in an urban/suburban area, who receives littlesupport with childcare.
She spends much of her time in the evening chatting to people shehas met in chat rooms or through social networking sites and MSN. She has had an affairwith one man she met online which lasted eight months. They would talk to each other dailyand their avatars would go and ‘get a room’ at the Habbo Hotel.42 After eight months theymet in public and she learnt that he was married, so she finished the online relationship,although she really felt they ‘had something special’.
Despite her experience, she still feelsthat social networking sites are a much easier way for single mothers to meet people,especially as they are not able to go out very much and it gives them a chance to talk to lotsof people and feel less isolated.The motivations were different for those who just wanted to talk to new people.
Forteenagers and 20-somethings, there seemed to be a prestige factor associated with thenumber of friends they had (often in the hundreds). In reality, most only knew about 50 ofthese friends offline and were willing to accept people they did not know to ‘boost theirnumbers.’ This was a strong characteristic of Alpha Socialisers, Attention Seekers and someFollowers. Faithfuls, on the other hand, tended not to do this.It’s sort of weird but good when you make friends with people that you don’t know – Male 21,rural/semi-ruralHowever, as mentioned above this tended to be true only for a minority of users we spoketo, and many reported that they communicated only with people they had some sort ofconnection with, whether knowing them offline or through a friend.42See glossary in Annex 1.44Social NetworkingEven though my friends just add random people, I tend only to add people I know.
I don’ttend to add people down in London or in America. I don’t see the point as I’m never going tomeet them and it’s like making conversation for the sake of it – Male 17, rural/semi-ruralParties organised through social networking sites getting out of handIn section 6.2 we identified that users felt that social networking sites enabled them tomanage their relationships efficiently, because the sites enabled them to communicate withmany people at the same time.
If privacy settings are open, these communications can beseen by anyone who is a user of the specific website, or in some cases anyone who usesthe internet. Furthermore, there is nothing to prevent anyone copying information or photosfrom one user’s site to another.This lack of control over who sees information or passes it on can result in a situation inwhich someone has announced a party at their house, and many people, not necessarilyknown to the social networker, have turned up, with unwanted consequences.
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