As the world moves into the second decade of the 21 st century, one of the major markers of this era is the rise and use of online communities. In particular, a paradigm called Web 2.0 describes recent technologies that focus on networking mass numbers of individuals into distinct communities over the Internet (O’Reilly, 2007). Social networking sites (SNS) are online communities designed to connect individuals to wider networks of relationships, and are one major example of Web 2.0 applications. Sites such as Facebook have exploded in membership. In a short period of 2007 – 2010, Facebook estimates that its membership has grown from 50 million to over 400 million users (Facebook, n.d.). Online social networks are now an integrated part of daily life and compel questions of how these media platforms affect human development, relationships, and interaction. Teenagers are among the most avid users of technology in general and social network sites in particular (Lenhart, Madden, Macgill, & Smith, 2007b). Recent reports find that youth spend nearly 10 hours per day using some form of technology, with socially networked media playing a large role in their daily lives (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). New technologies are deeply intertwined with adult perceptions about teenage life. Mimi Ito and colleagues observe that, “Although today’s questions about ‘kids these days’ have a familiar ring to them, the contemporary version is somewhat unusual in how strongly it equates generational identity with technology identity”
The clear finding is that today’s youth are increasingly connected to the world through socially networked media. While teenagers are engaged with technology, they are ever more disengaged from another major component of their lives – school. National analyses find that nearly 30% of high school students do not obtain their diploma on time (Cataldi,