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"Teenage Social media butterflies may not be such a bad idea" By: Melissa Healy
[|http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/18/science/la-sci-socially-connected-kids-20100518]

Works cited:
====Healy, Melissa. "Social Media | Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such a Bad Idea - Los Angeles Times." Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. 18 May 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. ====

Summary:
Teens are spending hours of their day on the internet, texting, listening to ipods. Parents are worried that it can affect the way they are socially. But studies show that it helps, kids can stay in touch with friends, coaches, etc. Some parents are supportive of their kids being on social networks. They say that it's not just a way for strangers to harm your children.

Quotes "So parents of well-adjusted teens may have little to worry about regarding the way their children behave when using social media," Mikami added. "It's likely to be similarly positive behavior."

"People are always worried about the Internet making it easier for strangers to hurt your children," Mills says. But she points out, "The dangers are the old dangers of who they hang out with."

"I think the majority of kids use it in ways that don't jeopardize their well-being," she said.

Facts In fact, children most likely to spend lots of time on social media sites are not the least well-adjusted but the healthiest psychologically, suggests an early, but accumulating, body of research.

In studies of teenagers and young adults, Cal State L.A. psychology professor Kaveri Subrahmanyam has also found that children's online worlds and friendships strongly resemble their relationships offline, with overlapping casts of characters and similar hierarchies of closeness.