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Online communication and adolescent well-being: Testing the stimulation versus the displacement hypothesis.
P.M. Valkenburg & J. Peter (2007) Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12; 4, 1169-1182

This study was to contrast the validity of two opposing explanatory hypotheses about the effect of online communication on adolescents’ well being. The two opposing hypotheses are the displacement hypothesis, which predicts that online communication reduces adolescents’ well-being because it takes time away from existing friends, which reduces the quality of these friendships. The stimulation hypothesis states that online communication does stimulate well-being via its positive effect on time spent with existing friend and the quality of those friendships. An online survey was conducted among 1210 Dutch adolescents between 10 and 17 years of age, 54% girls, 47% boys. Several measures where used; IM use, chat use, time spent with friends, quality of friendships, and well-being. The results of this study where more inline with stimulation hypothesis rather than the displacement hypothesis. They found that time spent with IM was positively related to the time spent with existing friends. In addition, the quality of friendships positively predicted well-being and acted as a first mediator between time spent with IM and well-being. They also found that time spent with friends mediated the effect of time spent with IM on the quality of friendships. Over the study suggests that the Internet communication is positively related to the time spent with friends and the quality of existing adolescent friendships, and , via this route, to their well-being.

The MySpace Generation
Jessi Hempel, with Paula Lehman in New York. Business Week. New York: Dec 12, 2005. , Iss. 3963; pg. 86

Abstract Summary from Article
Being online is a way of life for millions of young Americans across the country. And increasingly, social networks are their medium. As the first cohort to grow up fully wired and technologically fluent, today's teens and twentysomethings are flocking to Web sites like Buzz-Oven as a way to establish their social identities. It's where you go when you need a friend to nurse you through a breakup, a mentor to tutor you on your calculus homework, an address for the party everyone is going to. Preeminent among these virtual hangouts is MySpace.com, whose membership has nearly quadrupled since January alone, to 40 million members. Millions also hang out at other up-and-coming networks such as Facebook.com, which connects college students, and Xanga.com, an agglomeration of shared blogs. A second tier of some 300 smaller sites, such as Buzz-Oven, Classface.com, and Photobucket.com, operate under--and often inside or next to--the larger ones. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of these exploding networks has companies clamoring to be a part of the new social landscape. News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has spent $1.3 billion on Web acquisitions so far to better reach this coveted demographic. Silicon Valley venture capitalists such as Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures are pouring millions into Facebook and other social networks.

Friend networking sites and their relationship to adolescents’ well-being and social self-esteem
P.M. Valkenburg, J. Peter & A.P. Schouten (2006) CyberPsychology & Behavior 9:5, 584-590

The goal of this study was to investigate the consequences of friend networking sites for adolescents’ social self-esteem and well-being. They indicate that there is little research at the time of this study that specifically focuses on the uses and consequences of such sites. Social self-esteem is defined as adolescents’ evaluation of their self-worth or satisfaction with three dimensions of their selves: physical appearance, romantic attractiveness, and the ability to form and maintain close friendships. Well-being is referred to as a judgment of one’s satisfaction with life as a whole. The study was conducted in the Netherlands with 881 adolescents between the ages of 10-19 years old who at the time were members of a networking site names CU2, 45% were boys and 55% were girls. Several hypotheses are tested; H: Social self-esteem will predict well-being, and by doing so, it may act as a mediator between the use of friend networking sites and well-being. H: The use of friend networking sites will increase the chance that adolescents; form relationships on those sites and receive reactions on the profiles. H: The more reactions adolescents receive to their profiles, the more positive these reactions will become. H: The more reactions adolescents receive the more relationships they will form. H: Most adolescents who use the friend networking sites will be positively related to their social self-esteem. H: A positive tone of reactions will positively predict social self-esteem, whereas a negative tone will negatively predict social self-esteem. Several measures were used in the study; use of friend networking sites, frequency of reactions to profiles, tone of reactions to profiles, relationships established through CU2, social self-esteem and well-being. The results showed that adolescents’ self-esteem was affected solely by the tone of the feedback that adolescents received on their profiles: Positive feedback enhanced adolescents’ self-esteem and negative feedback decreased their self-esteem. However, the number of friendships and romantic relationships formed via the site did not affect adolescents’ social self-esteem.