Are you an Alpha Socialiser or an Attention Seeker?

By Ted Hastings in Children on April 3rd, 2008

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by Ted Hastings

A report published 2nd April 2008 by UK telecoms regulator Ofcom reveals that 49% of children aged 8-17 who have access to the internet have their own personal profile on a social networking site. Although the minimum age for major social networking sites is usually 13 or 14, 27% of 8-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites claim to have a profile on a site.

Ofcom’s figures emphasize some incredible discrepancies between what parents think is taking place and what is actually happening. For example, 66% of parents claim to set rules for their children’s use of social networking sites, but only 53% of children agreed that their parents did so. 50% parents have installed some type of content blocking, and 80% of them think it works, but 67% of children consider that they can get round it and access any content they want. Given that 24% of teenagers have a computer in their bedroom, their parents can’t see what they’re doing in any case.

22% of adult internet users aged 16 and over have their own online profile. Adults often have a profile on more than one site and half of adult social network users claim to access their profile every other day. Facebook is the most popular site, followed by MySpace and then Bebo. Bebo is the social networking site most used by children aged between 8 and 17. Adults in lower socio-economic groupings are more likely to use MySpace.

Social networking sites are altering the normal meaning of the word ‘friends’ to include anyone a user has an online connection with, even those that they have never met or spoken to offline. Details of online friendships are often displayed publicly via friend lists, meaning that users are sharing personal details like political views, sexuality, religion and date of birth with people they barely know.

Ofcom’s research, which involved 5,000 adults and 3,000 children, suggests that there are five distinct groups of people who use social networking sites:

* Alpha Socialisers - mostly male, under 25s, who use sites in short intense bursts to flirt, meet new people and be entertained.

* Attention Seekers - generally females looking for attention and comments from others, often by posting photographs and customizing their profiles. Some younger women claimed to create fake profiles for fun.

* Followers - include both males and females of all ages who join sites to keep track of what their peer group is doing.

* Faithfuls - these are generally older males and females, aged over 20, who usually use social networking sites to re-establish old friendships, often from school or university.

* Functionals - mostly older males who tend to be single-minded in using sites for a particular purpose.

The research also suggests three distinct groups of people who do not use social networking sites:

* Worried about safety - often older people and parents concerned about safety online, especially making personal details available online.

* Technically inexperienced - often people over 30 years old who lack confidence in using the internet and computers.

* Intellectual rejecters - usually older teens or young adults who have no interest in social networking sites and regard them as a waste of time.

Although privacy and safety are cited as major reasons for avoiding social networking sites, they do not appear to be a major worry for those who do use social networking sites. The research found that:

* 41% of children and 44% of adults leave their privacy settings as default ‘open’ which means that their profiles are visible to anyone

* 34% of 16-24 year olds are happy to give out sensitive personal information such as their email address or phone number

* 17% of adult users said that they talked to people on social networking sites that they didn’t know and 35% spoke to people who were ‘friends of friends’.

Some teenagers and young adults admitted that they felt ‘addicted’ to social networking sites and realized that their use was reducing the time available for studying. Some users had heard of bullying through social networking sites and a minority of younger users admitted that they had used social networking sites to get back at people they had fallen out with.

About the Author:

Ted Hastings has 35+ years of experience of IT and education. He has written a textbook on Internet Safety Skills and writes a popular blog called Surf Safely.