Teens and Mobile Phones

Text messaging explodes as teens embrace it as the centerpiece of their communication strategies with friends. Cell phones are not just about calling or texting – with expanding functionality, phones have become multimedia recording devices and pocket-sized internet-connected computers. Cell phones are seen as a mixed blessing. Parents and teens say phones make their lives safer and more convenient. Yet both also cite new tensions connected to cell phone use. Cell phones help bridge the digital divide by providing internet access to less privileged teens.

Text messaging has become the primary way that teens reach their friends, surpassing face-to-face contact, email, instant messaging and voice calling as the go-to daily communication tool for this age group. However, voice calling is still the preferred mode for reaching parents for most teens.

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The Civic and Political Significance of Online Participatory Cultures among Youth Transitioning to Adulthood

Most existing scholarship that measures the impact of the Internet on civic or political engagement focuses on political uses of new media. Drawing on two large panel studies, we find that youth engagement in nonpolitical online participatory cultures may serve as a gateway to participation in important aspects of civic and political life, including volunteering, community problem-solving, protest activities, and political voice. These relationships remain statistically significant for both datasets, even with controls for prior levels of civic and political participation and a full range of demographic variables. While politically driven online participation is clearly worthy of attention, these findings indicate that it should not be seen as the only relevant bridge from online activity to civic and political engagement.

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The Benefits of Social Networking Services

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Technology has significantly changed the way in which young people interact with one another and the world around them. The majority of young Australians use the internet or a mobile phone to source information, engage and construct and maintain social networks. Technologies have dramatically transformed young people‟s relationships with one another, their families and communities. Young people‟s online behaviour is often not well understood resulting in a „digital disconnect‟ between young people‟s use of technology and the knowledge and concerns that parents, professionals and community members share about this use.

This report produced by the Cooperative Research Centre for Young People, Technology and Wellbeing presents research conducted by the Inspire Foundation, University of Western Sydney and Murdoch University. It summarises the current evidence relating to the impact of Social Networking Services in the context of young people‟s everyday lives.  This seminal report provides a critical evidence base for youth based organisations looking to incorporate social networking into their programs. Additionally it provides a summary of essential research which will provide the foundations for educational resources for parents, professionals and young people.