The Psychological Impact of Living in a Virtual World Exploring MySpace Users Ages Jyenny Babcock California State University, Dominguez Hills

Purpose of Study To learn more about teen and young adult Internet behavior within virtual communities in relation to:  Depression  Self-esteem  Perceived family and friend support  Bad online experiences

Literature Overview Virtual community defined as a “social- networking space where people connect with friends and make new ones…” (Garret, 2006) Virtual communities have become one of the fastest growing Internet activities of our time

Literature Overview cont. Initial studies about Internet use indicated:  Too much time spent online leads to negative outcomes (Kraut et al., 1998)  Males are more comfortable with Internet than females (Morahan-Martin, 1998)  Few studies have addressed bad online experiences

Literature Overview cont. Current literature about Internet use suggests:  Gender – the gap has closed (Gross, 2004)  Depression – decreased (Shaw & Gant, 2002a)  Self-esteem – increased (Shaw & Gant, 2002a)  Perceived social support – increased (Rohall et al., 2002)

Research Questions What is the relationship between time spent online and the number of online friends with depression, self-esteem and perceived social support? What is the rate and nature of bad online experiences?

Participants Data collected from 1,257 participants  Study based on 924 participants aged between (M=20)  40% males, 60% females

Method & Measures A 65-question, anonymous, online survey  Yale Single Question depression inventory (Mahoney, Drinka, & Abler, 1994)  Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1989)  PSS-FA & PSS-FR scales (Procidano & Heller, 1983)

Results Favorite Virtual Community  90% preferred MySpace  No gender effect Time Spent Online  Total hours per week (M = 11)  No gender effect  More time online = more online friends

Results cont. Favorite Online Activities  Instant Messaging  Reading comments about own webpage  Posting photographs  Gender effect

Results cont. Depression  More time online = more depression  No gender effect  No number of online friends effect

Results cont. Self-Esteem  More time online = lower self-esteem  No gender effect  No number of online friends effect

Results cont. Perceived Family Support  More time online = less perceived family support  Females showed more perceived family support  No number of online friends effect

Results cont. Perceived Friend Support  No correlation between time spent online with perceived friend support  Females showed more perceived friend support  Higher number of online friends = more perceived friend support

Results cont. Bad Online Experiences  32% of participants reported having a bad online experience  Females more than males  bad online experiences  bad online experiences sexual in nature  bad online experiences with a stranger

Discussion Limitations  Did not examine if the bad online experiences had any physically harmful or other lasting deleterious effects  Did not investigate what types of behaviors precipitated bad online experiences

Discussion cont. Conclusion/Implications  Far fewer cases of bad online experiences reported than media portrays  Some negative psychological effects  Some positive psychological benefits

Discussion Cont. Risks of virtual community participation  Depression  Self-esteem  Perceived family support  Exposure to bad online experiences Benefits of virtual community participation  Circle of online friends  Perceived friend support