prPOPS!

We’ve all heard it before: the Web is the new wave of the future. If it hasn’t already, it will take over and ruin run our lives. We know, we know.

Social media is steadily making its online footprint as well. Slowly but surely everyone and their mom (dad, grandma, aunt, brother- you get the picture) will be familiar with social media tools and tactics.

So who, besides avid social media gurus like Todd Defren, Brian Solis and Shel Holtz (among many others), are leading the pack for hours spent in front of a computer monitor?

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “some 93% of teens use the internet, and more of them than ever are treating it as a venue for social interaction.” The Project found 59% of all teens (not just online users) partake in content-related activities such as working on a web site or webpage, writing a blog, creating personal pages, and sharing artistic creations like photos, artwork and videos.

Teens aren’t just web-savvy, they seem to be all-around technologically-savvy youngsters. My younger sister’s magic fingers can send text messages faster than the speed of light. (I still don’t know how she does it). Don’t even get me started on the amount of annoying text-alerts she subjects us to when she’s home from school.

It seems that because teens grew up during the Internet and Web explosion of the ’90s, most probably aren’t aware of the stark usage contrast between themselves and say, their parents.

Freud might even say teenagers’ Web usage stems from unconscious motivation, or “motivating impulses that influence behavior without conscious awareness.” Or a teens’ mindset may best fit, to quote a Cranberries album, “Everybody else is doing it so why can’t we?”

So why the long hours with eyes glazed in front of the computer screen? Who benefits from these limitless online social interactions (besides optometrists)? You do. So does your mom, dad, aunt, sister, boss, friend, etc. People locked in the depths of the online world, whether consciously or unconscously, ideally want to increase their social capital. They want to feel special. They like giving their egos a boost, intentionally or not.

In a 2007 research study titled, “The benefits of Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites,” the researchers include this definition of social capital: “Social capital broadly refers to the resources accumulated through the relationships among people.”

The study found the correlation between an individuals’ use of Facebook is positively associated with the individuals’ perceived bonding and bridging aspects of social capital.

Give and you shall receive, especially if you’re a hormone-ridden teen.