Chatting online boosts lonely teens' confidence: study

Hours spent chatting online by the glow of the computer screen doesn't make lonely teens more isolated and unhappy, new research suggests - in fact, it may boost their confidence and self-esteem.

The study flies in the face of previous research and popular notions that a lot of Internet time breeds emotional and social problems, and the results surprised even the researchers.

Maarten Selfhout-van Zalk, a researcher with the youth and society research group at Orebro University in Sweden, says that for teens with few friends and weak friendships, more time spent online is a good thing.

"We found if they chat more, with strangers specifically, they increase in their well-being over time," he says. "They gain positive feelings from that; they actually experience better self-esteem."

He said they expected Internet usage to have detrimental effects on lonely teens who were investing more time in online friendships than real ones. Instead, their research suggests the Internet acts as a social training ground, where such teens can meet people, create support networks and build their confidence and social skills for real-world interactions.

Teens don't separate their online and offline social lives the way adults tend to, he says.

"The distinction between face-to-face communications and online communication is becoming more vague," he says. "If there's certain conflicts that adolescents have with their offline friends, they tend to turn to their online friends as a form of support."

Interestingly, the study found Internet time only benefits teens having a hard time fitting in - in the overall sample of 300 youth surveyed for the study, they saw no relationship between well-being and time spent online.

Internet use averaged nine to 10 hours a week overall, Selfhout-van Zalk says, though those with "low friendship quality" spent an average of six to eight hours more online than their more popular peers.

But the benefits of the Internet for lonely teens applies only to time spent online communicating with others, he says.

The researchers found that surfing without interacting with anyone was actually detrimental to teens' well-being. This is where addictive behaviour may come into play and cause adolescents to isolate themselves, he says, and other studies have shown surfing for pornography, in particular, is detrimental across all age groups.

The study didn't specifically address gaming, he says, but it could fit into the beneficial side of Internet use if teens are chatting and interacting with others while they play.

The study is published in the Journal of Adolescence.