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The aim of this study was to examine the role of social networking sites (SNSs) in early adolescents' social lives. First, we investigated the relation between SNS use and several aspects of early adolescents' social lives (i.e., friendship quality, bridging social capital, and bonding social capital). Second, we examined whether there are differences between SNS users and nonusers in terms of their social lives. Drawing on a survey among 3,068 early adolescents, results showed positive relations between SNS use and friendship quality, bridging social capital, and bonding social capital. Furthermore, we found positive effects of SNS membership on these social indicators. In sum, even though concerns have been voiced about a possible negative impact of SNS use on adolescents' social lives, we found no evidence of this. Results of this study show that the role of SNSs in early adolescents' social lives is positive at least concerning friendship quality, bridging social capital, and bonding social capital.

This study investigates individual- and community-level factors that affect how people use People-Nearby Applications (PNAs) to meet people in their local communities. We pose that individuals' local social needs stimulate PNAs use, but that this relationship is contingent upon their neighborhood characteristics. A multiple informant methodology was used. 314 Italian and Dutch PNAs users answered an online questionnaire about their local social needs (bridging social capital, loneliness, sense of community) and their neighborhood social and environmental characteristics. Results show that community-related PNAs use facilitates users to meet their social needs when their local community offers opportunities for social interaction. When the neighborhood offers social places, the relationship between PNAS use and loneliness increases, indicating that in such cases people are willing to use PNAS to counter their loneliness. Furthermore, when neighbors are already more supportive, the relationship between sense of community and PNAS use becomes more negative, which may mean PNAS use cannot further add to a sense of community if the neighborhood already provides this; conversely, the one between bridging social capital and PNAS use becomes more positive. In sum, results show that PNAS use is related to local community experiences, albeit contingent upon the specific neighborhood characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how online dating profiles, consisting of both pictures and texts, are visually processed, and how both components affect impression formation. The attractiveness of the profile picture was varied systematically, and texts either included language errors or not. By collecting eye tracking and perception data, we investigated whether picture attractiveness determines attention to the profile text and if the text plays a secondary role. Eye tracking results revealed that pictures are more likely to attract initial attention and that more attractive pictures receive more attention. Texts received attention regardless of the picture's attractiveness. Moreover, perception data showed that both the pictorial and textual cues affect impression formation, but that they affect different dimensions of perceived attraction differently. Based on our results, a new multimodal information processing model is proposed, which suggests that pictures and texts are processed independently and lead to separate assessments of cue attractiveness before impression formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the impact of (the lack of) audiovisual cues during conversations preceding a first face-to-face meeting among prospective daters on daters' perceptions of partners' social and romantic attraction. Additionally, the study examined the effect of modality switching, from online to offline interaction. Thirty-nine individuals participated in a round-robin speed dating event, resulting in 95 unique conversation pairings. For their first conversations they were randomly assigned to meet via text-based CMC or videoconferencing. The dyads then had a second encounter, which was face-to-face. Results showed more social attraction between interactants who used text-based CMC than videoconferencing, supporting the hyperpersonal model of CMC. Furthermore, after a modality switch to a face-to-face encounter the hyperpersonal effect persisted for social attraction, while romantic attraction declined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents two experimental studies investigating the impact of language errors in online dating profiles on impression formation. A first study examined whether language errors have a negative effect on perceptions of attraction and dating intention and whether this effect is moderated by the presence of visual information, that is, the profile picture. This 2 (Language Errors/No Language Errors) × 2 (Visible/Blurred Picture) experiment revealed that language errors negatively affect perceptions of social and romantic attraction and that a visible picture on a profile positively affects perceptions of physical attraction. Study 2 focused on mechanical, rule-based, and informal language errors, which can each be attributed to different personality traits. Mechanical and rule-based errors lead to lower scores on, respectively, perceived attentiveness and intelligence, which in turn lead to lower attraction and dating intention scores. These results highlight the importance of error-free language use as a cue for attractiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first aim of this study was to analyze video-mediated communication (VMC), in comparison to face-to-face (FTF) communication, and the effect it has on how communicators express nonverbal affiliative behaviors relevant for social attraction. Second, this study aimed to discover whether these nonverbal expressions relate to communicators' social attraction. An experiment with 93 cross-sex dyads was conducted, with a get-acquainted exercise in a VMC or a FTF condition. Our findings revealed that communicators in VMC smiled more and spoke louder. In addition, VMC interactants displayed less facial touching than FTF interactants. Finally, more gaze aversion and a higher speech rate were found to influence social attraction. These findings have implications for research on cue-rich computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the way in which communicators nonverbally express themselves in comparison to copresent FTF communication. Additionally, this study has implications for social information processing theory which may be extended to include cue-rich forms of CMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes a perceived affordance approach to explain how differences in teenagers’ mobile messaging behavior associate with indicators of friendship maintenance behavior. Based on a survey among 1943 teenagers, a structural equation model was tested in which their appreciation of three main affordances of mobile messaging predicted the companionship and support that they derive from their friends through their instrumental and expressive mobile messaging behavior. The model fitted the data well: teenagers’ appreciation for anytime–anyplace connectivity, private communication, and control over message content explained to what extent they use mobile messaging to micro-coordinate, to chitchat with friends, and to intimately self-disclose, thereby indirectly explaining the companionship and support that teens derive from friends. This finding supports the notion that inherent characteristics of technology play a role in contemporary relationship management by driving social uses of the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]