Teens use social networks for the creation and the maintenance of friendships. Most teens are using the networks to stay in touch with people they already know, either friends that they see a lot (91% of social networking teens have done this) or friends that they rarely see in person (82%).

Teens also use the online networks to make new friends; 49% of social network users (27% of online teens) say they use the networks to make new friends. Boys are more likely to report using the networks to make new friends than girls. Teens from middle and lower income families were more likely to say that they use the sites to make new friends than higher income teens. A bit more than a third (37%) of teens from households earning more than $75,000 annually said they used social networks to make new friends, compared with 57% of teens from families earning less than $75,000 annually. Children of single parents were also much more likely to use online social networks to find new friends than teens with married parents.

Teens told us in their own words about how they use social network sites to make friends and communicate with people. For some teens it is how they make new friends “I like it. I just like networking, that’s about it,” said one late high school-aged boy. “…my school is pretty big, so if I didn’t know a person I can meet them through MySpace and just see them at school then. That’s how I make friends, I guess.” Another high school boy echoed his sentiments: “When you look at their profile you get to see who they are and see if they might like the same things you like. You might like how they look or something like that.”  And for some teens, high school-aged boys in particular, it is a way to meet and approach potential romantic partners. One high school boy said, “Yes, like if you’re just on there and you’re looking through and you see a good-looking girl on there and she wants to be my friend and you accept!”

For some teens, making friends on social networks is less about finding common ground, and more about avoiding giving offense. One middle school-aged girl told us “My friends will have friends that I don’t know. You look at them…Then you feel bad because they’re like, ‘Oh, well, I just saw you in this play, be my friend.’ And then you’re like, ‘Okay.’ All right, you know, why not.”  Another middle school girl elaborated, “I mean, I’m not really making new friends, I’m just not hurting peoples’ feelings. If I know that they’re friends with someone else that I don’t feel like they’re [going to] come and attack me, and so it’s safe.”

16% of teens are connected to “friends” on social networking sites who they have not met in person.

As the above quotes suggest, some social networking teens report that their online friends are people that they have never met in person.  One in six or 17% of online teens and 31% of social networking teens have “friends” on their social networking profile who they have personally never met. More than two-thirds (69%) of social networking teens say they do not have unmet friends in their network. Older teen boys (ages 15-17) are much more likely than any other group to say that they have friends in their network who they have never met in person. Nearly half of social network-using older teen boys (47%) have friends in their social network who they have never met. For older girls, only 28% report having people they have never met in their networks. About 1 in 3 (29%) of younger boys report having friends they have never met, and just 22% of younger girls say the same.

Some un-met online friends are connected through other friends...

Out of the small group of teens who have friends in their social networks who they have never met in person, many have friends who are in some way connected to an offline friend, and a smaller number have friends in their network who are in no way connected to online or offline friends. 12% of online teens have “friends” on social networking sites whom they have never met, but who have some connection to their offline friends.

“If people I don’t know request to be my friend I’ll add them but I don’t talk to them.  I don’t know why I add them if I don’t talk to them, now that I think about it.  That’s kind of stupid.  It just means they’re on my friends list.  I don’t really get anything out of it.  They can just send me comments.”

– Girl, Late High School

To look at the data another way, 70% of social networking teens with un-met “friends” say some of these people have a connection to their offline friends – people like a chemistry partner’s older sister, or the cousin of a good friend. It also could be that these friends have simply been “friended” by another friend of the social network user, and are in fact, true strangers with no offline connection. There are not statistically significant differences between age groups and girls and boys with these kinds of online friends.

…Others have friends in their social networks that neither they nor their friends have ever met.

A small subset of teens with unmet friends in their social network say that some of these friends have no connection to their online or offline friends. This group represents just 9% of online teens and a bit more than half (53%) of teens with un-met friends. However, the practice of “friending” celebrities, musicians and political candidates in order to be affiliated with them in some way is a popular practice on social networks, and we do not know how many of these profiles account for links to unmet and unknown online “friends.” 

“i have a myspace and a xanga. most of the people i meet online are friends of friends of mine so i know they're really who they say they are and stuff. i think its really good. i got to know one of my present best friends thanks to myspace.”

– Girl, Late High School

Even though girls are less likely to have friends in their social network whom they have never met, those girls that do have unmet friends are more likely than boys with un-met friends to say that these people have no connection to online or offline acquaintances. Two-thirds (66%) of girls with un-met online friends say that they have social network friends who have no connection to any of their online or offline friends – 42% of boys with un-met friends say that at least some of their social networking friends are totally unconnected with other online or offline friends. Most of the difference between boys and girls comes from the older girls (ages 15-17) in this group, of whom 72% say they have friends online who they have not met who are not connected to other online or offline friends. Just 39% of boys of the same age report these kinds of friends.

“I know when I get a friend request, if I don’t know the person I won’t automatically deny them, I’ll go to their page and see who’s in their top eight and see if I know any of their friends... They’re not like strangers if your good friend knows them, like they are to you, but it’s not like they’re dangerous.”

– Girl, Middle School