The Internet

The internet is quickly and widely diffusing into every society, rural as well as urban. The internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. Internet is at once a worldwide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographical location. Today there are more than 1.5 billion internet users in the world and it has become an integral part of our society. It has spawned a revolution not only in commerce but also in interpersonal behaviors. This technology is changing the way people are socializing, studying, working, shopping, searching new jobs and spending their leisure time.

Table 2: top 7 social networking sites in the world

Rank Sites Estimated unique monthly users

Face book	55,0000000
Twitter	95800000
MySpace	80500000
Linked In	50000000
Ning	42000000
Tagged	30000000
Classmates	29000000

Theoretical Framework:

Our theoretical framework draws on John Hill’s claim that adolescent behavior is best understood in terms of the key developmental tasks of adolescence- identity, autonomy, intimacy, and sexuality-and the factors, such as pubertal and cognitive changes, and the variables, such as gender and social class that influence them. Extending his ideas, we propose that for today’s youth, media technologies are an important social variable and that physical and virtual worlds are psychologically connected; consequently, the virtual world serves as a playing ground for developmental issues from the physical world, such as identity and sexuality. Thus understanding how online communication affects adolescents’ relationships requires us to examine how technology shapes two important tasks of adolescence-establishing interpersonal connections and constructing identity.

Electronic Media and Relationships:

Establishing interpersonal connections-both those with peers, such as friendships and romantic relationships, and those with parents, siblings, and other adults outside the family-is one of the most important developmental tasks of adolescence. As electronic media technologies have become important means of communicating with others, it is important to consider them in the context of the interpersonal relationships in adolescents’ lives. Two themes have framed discussions of adolescent online communication and relationships. One is concern about the nature and quality of online and offline relationships. The other is how online communication affects adolescents’ relationships and well-being and whether the effects are positive or negative. We include that relationship here, as the Internet has opened up a world beyond one’s physical setting.

b) Electronic Media and Relationships with Friends:

It is important to examine the role of electronic media in youth’s existing friendships. Various studies of home Internet use found that adolescents used instant messaging and e-mail for much of their online interactions; they communicated mostly with friends from offline lives about everyday issues such as friends and gossip. Another study found that teens use instant messaging in particular as a substitute for face-to-face talk with friends from their physical lives. According to this study, conducted in 2001-02, teens feel less psychologically close to their instant messaging partners than to their partners in phone and face-to-face interactions. Teens also find instant messaging less enjoyable than, but as supportive as, phone or face-to-face interactions. They find instant messaging especially useful to talk freely to members of the opposite gender. The authors of the study speculate that teens have so wholly embraced instant messaging despite its perceived limitations because it satisfies two important developmental needs of adolescence- connecting with peers and enhancing their group identity by enabling them to join offline cliques or crowds without their more formal rules.

Although social networking sites are also used in the context of offline friendships, this is true mostly for girls. The 2006 Pew survey study on social networking sites and teens found that girls use such sites to reinforce pre-existing friendships where as boys use them to flirt and make new friends. Text messages on cell phones has recently become popular among U.S. teens; they are now following youth in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia who have widely adopted it and enmeshed it in their lives. Adolescents exchange most of their text messages with their peers. To study the communicative purposes of text messaging, one study asked ten adolescents (five boys and five girls) to keep a detailed log of the text messages that they sent and received for seven consecutive days. Analysis of the message logs received three primary conversation thread: chatting ( discussing activities and events, gossip, and homework help), planning (coordinating meeting arrangements), and coordinating communication (having conversations about having conversations). The teens ended most text conversations by switching to another setting such as phone, instant messaging, or face-to-face.

c) Effects of Electronic Communication on Friendships:

How does adolescents’ electronic communication with their friends affect their friendship networks and, in turn, their well being? According to a 2001 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 48 percent of online teens believe that the Internet has improved their relationships with friends; the more frequently they use the Internet, the more strongly they voice their belief. Interestingly, 61 percent feel that time online does not take away from time spent with friends. One recent study appears to support adolescents’ self-reported beliefs about how the Internet affects their friendships. Many adolescent youth these days agree to the link between online communication and relationship strength and use the Internet to maintain existing friendship networks. People communicated more often on the Internet felt closer to existing friends than those who did not, but only if they were using the Internet to communicate with the friends rather than strangers. And also online communication as allowing for more intimates self-disclosure.

Even when adolescents are communicating with their friends, social networking sites may be their very nature be transforming their peer relations. These sites make communication with friends public and visible. Through potentially infinite electronic lists of friends and “friends of friends”, they bring the meaning of choosing one’s social relationships to a new extreme. They have thus become an essential part of adolescent peer social life while leading to a redefinition of the word “friend”. A recent focus group study of My Space on a college campus found that most participants had between 150 and 300 “friends” on their My Space site. Friends’ photos and names are displayed on users’ profiles, and each profile includes a list of “top” friends, ranging from a “top four” to a “top twenty-four”. Such public display of best friends seems a potentially transformative characteristic of a social networking site. But how does making (and not making) someone’s “top” friends list affect adolescent relationships and self esteem? This is an important question for future research in the area of adolescent peer relations. Other technologies clearly form barriers against all face-to-face communication. Walking through an unfamiliar university campus recently, one of us had difficulty getting the attention of students hooked up to iPods to get directions to a particular building. Initial qualitative evidence is that the ease of electronic communication may be making teens less interested in face-to-face communication with their friends. More research is needed to see how widespread his phenomenon is and what it does to the emotional quality of a relationship.

d) Electronic media and bullying:

The news media are increasingly reporting that adolescents are using electronic technologies such as cell phones, text messages, instant messages, and e-mail to bully and victimize their peers. A new form of harassment appears to be emerging through cell phone cameras, people have reported feeling embarrassed, uncomfortable, or threatened by a picture that someone took of them with a cell phone camera. The majority of the respondents reported knowing he person who bullied or threatened them. Harassment included being bothered online as well as having someone post or send messages about them to others. Both girls and boys were targets, although girls were more likely to receive distressing harassment. Instant messaging elicited the most reports of harassment

e) Electronic Media and Family Relations:

Two major questions on the topic of electronic media and family relations warrant further study. First, to what extent do youth use electronic media to communicate with their parents, siblings, and other family members? Second, how has adolescents’ use of electronic communication affected their relations with their parents and other family members? Numerous media reports, as well as anecdotal observation, suggest that more and more parents are tuning to text messaging and instant messaging to communicate with their adolescents; text messaging in particular can be very useful to parents trying to keep tabs on their teen. There is as yet little systematic research on the question. Concern is growing that adolescents’ extensive use of electronic communication to interact with their peers may impair their relations with their parents, siblings, and other family members. Here is some evidence that electronic media may enhance peer relations at the expense of family, especially parent-child relations. About half the time, children spend time on multitasking and monitoring their various electronic gadgets. Parents had a hard time penetrating their children’s world and often retreated. Electronic multitasking has become pervasive, sometimes at the expense of face-to-face family interaction, among siblings as well as with parents. Larry Rosen points out that the advent of social networking sites has made most research findings on how Internet use affects social relations obsolete. Parents feel that the time their teen spent on internet interfered with family life. It is seen that teens that spent a great deal of time was on internet felt that they were getting less support from their parents. The role of cell phones in adolescent life and family relations is also worthy of attention. Perhaps the most powerful way in which the mobile telephone undermined family interaction in favor of peer communication was through the individualization of communication. Adolescents control the people with whom they talk and have more room into which they can share thoughts and messages that might not be acceptable. This plays on the peer group’s ethos that their inner communications be shielded from non-members, and particularly parents. Qualitative evidence is starting to accumulate that social networking sites are causing serious parent-child conflicts and loss of parental control. Research has not systematically examined how technology has changed parent-child relations. At the moment, researchers are limited to pointing to new phenomenon in the use of technology that impinges on parent-child communication without yet being able to understand their developmental and psychological significance.

OBJECTIVES:

· To find out the knowledge and awareness about internet among the adolescent girls ;

· To Identify how many adolescent girls from the sample are actively using social networking sites; and

· Understand the impact of internet usage among the users in their lifestyle

Rationale of the study:

Internet has evolved as a major mass media in today’s world. Using internet to communicate with others is an increasingly popular activity especially among the adolescents and the youth. Metropolitan cities witness a great usage of internet in almost all spheres and this is more popular among the students. In today’s times the impact and effect is not only limited to the bigger cities but even small cities, towns and rural areas are in the garb of internet for both its advantages and disadvantages. This study based on primary data is being undertaken in order to understand the knowledge, awareness and impact of the internet among the adolescent (girls) of a semi urban Town, Mandi in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The rationale behind this is to understand how the usage of internet has changed their outlook towards life, their beliefs n knowledge related to various dimensions and aspects of life.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The universe of the study is adolescent girls of Govt. Girls School of Mandi town of Himachal Pradesh. Sampling is based on Convenient Sampling. Criterion of taking this sample was to know the impact of internet and social networking on girls of semi urban areas, their parents with little or no knowledge about internet, in addition facilities and exposure is not at par with big cities. The 51girls from class 10^th was taken as sample (all present girls). This sample was taken to maintain the uniformity of sample, as girls were almost of similar age group and level of maturity and exposure was almost same. The questionnaire is based on open ended and closed ended questions to gather data with qualitative in nature. The results are measured using measures of central tendency.

ANALYSIS AND DATA INTERPRETATION:

We focus on teenagers for this study because they use the Internet more than younger children. They are also experiencing a transitional period in their development when social networking plays an important role in their relationship building with peers and within families.

Figure 1.1 How much is the awareness about Internet and Social Networking Sites

The popularity of the Internet and social networking sites is immense, especially amongst the youth. The sample chosen had a majority of girls of the sample taken uses internet. Analysis of the data tells us that 99% of the students are aware of internet functions and social networking.

Questions	yes	No
Knowledge about computers	51	-
Girls Using Computers	51	-
Internet Connection At home	34	17
Parents sensitization on Internet usage	44	7
Sufficient Cyber café in area	19	32
Awareness about social networking sites	35	16
Account on social networking sites	35	16
Emails usage	34	17
Using Internet for study purpose	42	9
Has internet added to your knowledge	50	1
Do you educate parents about internet	35	16
Discussions with friends on internet	40	11
Has internet usage added to your potential	51	-

· 70% of girls are actively using one or other Social networking Sites

· 66% of the respondents using Emails regularly

· 39% of them using more than 1 site.

· Out of the ones who use more than one site, 31% amongst them use two sites and 5 % use three sites with an exception of 3% use four and above networking sites.

Figure 1.2: How many Sites do the Respondents use?

· 32%uses Google search engine

· 26% using face book

· 25% using yahoo

· 20% are using only Emails

· It clearly shows that entire population uses internet answer is active on or the other site. Girls are even active on multiple sites.

Figure 1.3: How the girls Access Internet?

Considering that these girls belonging to ales urbanized background still 67%girls have internet connection at home and 33% access via cyber cafes which justifies that cyber café’s are equally popular in semi urban areas.

Figure 1.4: How is parental outlook to Internet usage?

· As it is seen that majority is have internet connection at home, it is quite evident that parents support is there in spite of the fact that parents are not highly educated.

· 86% parents agree that computers are important for children

· 68% girls sensitize their parents about internet

· Only 2% parents show resistance on using computers

Figure 1.5: What is the purpose of using internet?

• 70% girls have accounts on at least one social networking site

• 82% girls use it for study purpose (English Speaking skills, online classes, General Knowledge)

• 84% girls refer to internet for their day to day problems (health, career prospects, and relationship troubles)

Most of the girls i.e. 81% feel that T.V is second for then on grounds of providing information and entertainment

Figure 1.7: It indicates that most popular media channel after internet is Television

Influence of networking sites on lifestyle:

Social networking sites have some or the other sort of influence on the lifestyle of the girls. While some people did not feel that it influences the lifestyle as they use these networking sites just for connecting with friends and did not feel its influence on their lifestyle.

On the other hand, those who feel that it has some influence on their lifestyle had a lot to share. The responses suggest that some girls have got addicted to the networking sites and use them more often and as such their life is completely influenced by these in addition they find it trendy to use these networking sites and being a member of the sites is considered trendy and in vogue thing. Some girls surf these sites to interact with people with similar preferences and it helps in their decision-making ability. They take the views and suggestions of the people before taking any such decisions and feel quite comfortable with it. Some people get knowledge about latest trends in fashion, electronic gadgets etc. The most staggering influence of these networking sites is the use of abbreviated words liked’ for ‘the’ and likewise. They tend to use the similar words in their day to day life and even in official communication and often have suffered due to this. For students, it often comes across during exams. It serves as a venting out medium for some and use abusive words to express their feelings on these networking sites and the same has been seen in their personal life of late. Certain people often use communities to dishonor their teachers and bosses or use bad-mouthing words for even celebrities and sports stars.

When we looked at the specific question asking about if parents discretion and monitoring is required in this case for children using these sites, we get maximum saying definitely yes. So we see that these things indicate that there is no as such anything wrong with the social networking sites and people find it useful too even in a small town which is quiet interesting to note that the reach of internet has touched almost every section of society.

Negative/bad experience from networking sites:

Generally the networking sites have been of great utility to the users and they have found it of immense importance. But some people have had bad experiences from these networking sites. These bad experiences have been seen observed more by the female users. The verification of genuine identity of the people is a problem. Many users have suffered from the same. People pose as someone else and tend to seek personal or confidential knowledge. This has led to breach of trust of a section of respondents. The albums are accessible to everyone and as such pictures can be distorted and misused.

CONCLUSION:

A social networking web site is an online community in which people can connect to others with similar interests. Since their start in 1995 with Classmates.com, social networking web sites have grown enormously to include such huge sites today as hi5.com, Facebook.com, and orkut.com. Through these sites business people can use social networking web sites to connect to potential employees, market new products, and get feedback on their current products as well as new ideas for future products. Although there are many valuable assets to social networking websites, there are also major issues that the sites must address such as the protection of private information, the protection of children, and the protection of copyrighted material. Although they have issues, social networking web sites are still one of the best inventions of the modern era because they connect so many people.

It was found that these social networking sites are acting as great medium for view mobilization and to keep themselves updated. Even in this age group these girls feel that this is the best medium to keep themselves updated as well as provides a good deal of information on every area of study. It is also being generated from the information so obtained that people are getting more aware about the social issues mainly from Face book. Most of the girls think that youth can play a positive role in changing our society which requires them to be educated and informed in which internet has proved to be a great help. The study shows that as compared to the urban adolescents, the Internet is very much popular in semi urban and rural areas among adolescents. Entire sample was aware about varied uses of internet like information fetching, Microsoft office and social networking but just few girls were aware about serious criminal aspect of such internet. Though the rural adolescents are involving in such activities due to their innocence and ignorance, abuse of the Internet is a serious matter and this calls for proper education and awareness programs to the adolescents especially in semi urban and rural areas. The parents' involvement in guiding the young generation is also important. Given that Internet has questionable content but also can be educational, we expect the pattern of rule setting for the Internet usage. Three sets of characteristics seem to be associated with setting rules: child, family, and parent characteristics. Further, families with higher socioeconomic status (measured by family income and parental education level) have better internet knowledge. We expect that families with more income and higher education more often monitor their children’s Internet use because they tend to have greater access to and familiarity with technology.

SUGGESTIONS:

Some ideas for future research for social networking websites would be personal contact offices to register on these sites to determine the legitimacy of the person who is trying to register. Although this would most likely end up a great hassle, it would provide the best security out there for people who are trying to have safe fun and connect with people that share similar interests and ideas. Another future tool social networking websites could use would be a licensing agreement with certain parties to prevent copyright infringement from happening on the Internet.

LIMITATIONS:

· The sample size that we have taken is 51 which we are assuming that it is homogeneous and enough to carry out the research.

· Most of the sample population consists of students (girls) and hence our research mainly focuses on students using social networking sites.

· The analysis done is mainly judgmental in nature

· The concept of social networking sites is not very old in India thus not much of research has been done in regards to its effects.

· The expertise of the questionnaire design is limited.

· The underlying assumption is that the survey conducted in limited area represents the general psyche of the users of the social networking site.

REFERENCES:

1. Naval, Prabhakar., and Basu, Narendra,.(2007) Mass Media : Origin and Development. Delhi: Commonwealth Publisher

2. Joshi, R. Subhash. (2006). Children, Youth and Electronic Media: Prospects and Retrospect. Delhi: B.R Publisher.

3. Wolfe, C.R. (Ed.), Learning and Teaching on the World Wide Web. San Diego: CA. Academic Press, pp. 191-219.

4. Yunus,M., and Khayel, R. (2000). Glamour or guil: the Internet today. IASLIC Bulletin, 45(2), 83-91.

5. Lenhart, APK., Smith, A, and Zickhur, K,.(2010).Social media and young adults. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project.

6. Boyd, D. (2008). Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics Berkeley, CA: University of California.

7. Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., and Smith, A. (2010). Social media and young adults. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

8. Patricia, Greenfield., and Zheng, Yan.(2006) Children, Adolescents, and the Internet: A New Field of Inquiry in Developmental Psychology. Developmental Psychology, 42 (3), 391–394. Retrieved from http://green fieldlab.psych.ucla.edu/Media_Studies_files/Greenfield%26Yan2006_1.pdf

9. National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development. (2008).Studies on adolescent girls studies on adolescent girls: An Analytical Review. Retrieved from http://nipccd.nic.in/reports/eag .pdf

Received on 22.04.2015

Modified on 15.05.2015

Accepted on 23.05.2015

Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 6(2): April-June, 2015, 88-96

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2015.00015.7

Communication Form	Electronic Hardware that supports it	Functions Enabled
E- mail	Computers, Cell phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s)	Write, store, send and receive messages electronically; can include attachment of word document, pictures
Instant Messaging	Computers, Cell Phones, PDA’s	Allows the Synchronous exchange of private messages andcan include attachments
Chat Rooms	Computers	Synchronous conversations with more than one user that primarily involve text; can be either public or private
Bulletin Boards	Computers	Online public spaces, typically centered on a topic (health, religion etc.), where people can post and read messages
Blogs	Computers	Websites where entries are typically displayed in reverse chronological order; entries can either be public or private only for users authorized by the blog owner
Social Networking Utilities	Computers	Online utilities that allow users to create profiles (public or private) and form a network of friends; allow users to interact with their friends via public and private means; also allow the posting of user-generated content such as photos and videos
Video Sharing	Computers, cell phones, cameras with wireless	Allows users to upload, view, and share video clips
Photo sharing	Computers, cell phones, cameras with wireless	Allows users to upload, view, and share photos; users can allow either public or private access
Massively multiplayer online computer games (MMOG)	Computers	Online games that can be played by large numbers of players simultaneously; the most popular type are the massively multi-player role playing games such as World of War craft
Virtual worlds	Computers	Online simulated 3 –D environments inhabited by players who interact with each other via avatars