{"id":1295,"date":"2020-01-08T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T10:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/?p=1295"},"modified":"2024-06-11T16:19:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:19:14","slug":"why-some-lonesome-teens-find-solace-in-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/en\/resource-center\/why-some-lonesome-teens-find-solace-in-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Why some lonesome teens find solace in Facebook \u2014 but perhaps shouldn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

*Based on an interview with Elodie Gentina<\/a> and her article \u201cDigital natives\u2019 coping with loneliness: Facebook or face-to-face?\u201d<\/a> (Information & Management<\/em>, 2018), co-written with Rui Chen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s adolescents are so immersed in technology that it is unsurprising that they turn to social media when they feel lonely. But not all of them do, which is good news, because face-to-face interactions foster deeper friendships. Researchers have discovered why some teens prefer online channels, and explain why they should be encouraged to connect with peers offline.*<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultra-connected yet lonely teenagers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s American teenagers spend an astonishing six to nine hours a day using entertainment media, not only watching TV and listening to music but increasingly using mobile games, social media and viewing online videos, the US nonprofit Common Sense reported in 2015. It also revealed that 78% of them check their mobile phones hourly. They are heavy texters, update their Facebook pages (95% of young people between 16 and 24 have a profile), share photos on Snapchat, watch YouTube videos \u2014 the list goes on and on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture is similar in France, where adolescents are so smartphone-dependent that 40% of them sleep with their phones. \u201cA kind of digital security blanket,\u201d remarks I\u00c9SEG professor Elodie Gentina<\/a>, whose research focuses on this new generation, Gen Z. These \u201cdigital natives\u201d are growing up in a digital technology-saturated world, yet at the same time, these ultra-connected teens suffer from loneliness just as much as, if not more than, previous generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 80% of digital natives constantly feel lonely, according to Gentina\u2019s latest research paper. To compensate, they may reach out to others, disclosing information about their personal interests or problems, thus developing social relationships. But do digital natives automatically turn to digital media to create intimacy with their peers? \u201cIt\u2019s vital to understand the new generation, because their behavior will become the norm, whether we like it or not,\u201d says Gentina. So she and her co-author, Rui Chen, Associate Professor at Iowa State University\u2019s Ivy College of Business<\/a>, set out to discover when and why some of them choose online channels while others prefer face-to-face interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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