SOCIAL NETWORKS AS INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Contest – Distance interpersonal relationships and interpersonal relationships at the presence of others help socialization to new educational media tools. In these last years, Internet started offering a vast amount of connections and/or social relationships, like web 2.0, born in 2003 with Myspace, and later on with Facebook, Netlog, Badoo, Twitter, Likedin, Friendster, distancing itself from the multimedia system. Before the adoption of a social network for educational purposes, we chose to analyze how much young people use these new instruments.
Aims and method – The aim of this research is to investigate how above mentioned platforms are used and to highlight the relevance of this phenomena through an analysis of what people know about the most popular social networks. Furthermore, we analyzed what is generally known about the specific dangers posed by their use and if this knowledge actually changed it. This research involved 100 subjects, divided into two subgroups based on age and genre, to whom questionnaires were given. These questionnaires were made up of three sections: the first one was about sociality, the second one regarded general knowledge about social networks and the third part revolved around the possibility of social networks change and around their educational potential. Frequency, chi-square and log-linear analyses were conducted.
Conclusions and results – Users of social networks – the most popular being Facebook - like to spend time with other people. These platforms are mostly used at home, by men of the first age group and by adults, too. Moreover, risks caused by these platforms in regard to data manipulations and possible identity theft are well known. Our hope is that this knowledge can aid the use of social networks as something more than means for interpersonal communication.