What Kind of Help Do Adolescents Find in Website-Mediated Interaction With Peers?

• In Event: Digital Socialization: Growing Up in a Novel Social Space

Abstract

Purpose of the study
In cases of collapsed natural mechanisms of socialisation, artifical therapy comes into operation (Kegan 1982) in the favorable case. Are the countless websites on the internet qualified to give support as a type of artifical therapy? Do adolescents with social problems find experiences in the online space, which are helpful for them and available only there, so that one could speak of self-chosen therapies (Erikson 1974)?

Theoretical framework
According to Oevermann’s professionalization theory, therapeutic and pedagogical relationships are characterized by the simultaneity of diffuse and role-shaped elements [Oevermann, 1996]. Using Kegan’s words, artificial therapy is limited in contrast to natural therapy (Kegan 1982), whereby the attention and care as a whole person (diffuse part) are limited to the therapeutic session (role-shaped part). In pedagogical relations, the therapeutic dimension is prophylactically applied [Oevermann, 1996]. It is important for the present study that developmentally relevant, socializing interactions (natural and artificial therapy) are characterized centrally by the structural characteristics of diffuse social relations. These ensure a holistic attention and care, which holds and lets go, and which contradicts and stays put for reintegration.
Data and Methods
This study examines the social media site A Thin Line (ATL), launched by MTV in 2010 (Zizek 2017). MTV provided this online space for adolescents to report on experiences in their youthful living environment and share social issues through a brief initial post in anticipation of receiving ratings and brief comments. It applies “extensive sequential analyses” as described by Oevermann in 1996 to personal accounst posted on the MTV website A Thin Line (ATL), to the respective anonymous responses posted by account readers and to the website as the pragmatic framework of this interaction.
Results
This analysis shows that interactive websites are understood as social spaces where one can find a counterpart for intimate, socialization-relevant interaction. This means that a large amount of confidence is placed in the Internet and social media to provide new possibilities for the discussion of central personal life issues. Beyond the reconstruction of this transformation of social reality, this analysis enables the quality of this interaction that competes with traditional socialization contexts to be judged. The anonymous counterparts are assured by the character limits that they only have to participate superficially and without any major involvement. In the case of traditional instances of socialization, such an unattached and filtered interaction is already an expression of its failure. The Internet-based interaction analyzed here lacks key qualities of socialization interaction.
Scientific significance of the work
The present study explores the socialization quality of Internet interactions between adolescents in micrological in-depth-analysis. Which help potentials do we find empirically in the interaction protocols? Given the increasing use of such digital services, it seems imperative that they be examined for their socialization quality.

Author

• Boris Zizek, Leibniz University of Hanover