Facebook and the Negotiation of ‘Old’ and ‘New’--论文代写范文

大学是一个过渡时期，对于自由和独立来说,是接触新思想、新思维方式,多样化的学生群体。研究人员通过探索和社会实验,了解独特的方面。下面的paper代写范文讲述了这一问题。

Abstract
  This study adopts a dialectical perspective to explore how students transitioning to college communicatively negotiate the web of old and new relationships in the age of Facebook. Interpretive thematic analysis of 30 interviews revealed three discursive struggles: preservation and (re)invention, uniqueness and conformity, and openness and closedness. With time and space no longer inhibiting a connection to all the people in our relational lives, college students must make sense of the possibility for new senses of self when connected to ‘‘home’’ in a way previous generations never experienced. The contradictions present in the participants’ voices illuminate the ways in which wider cultural discourses that construct college as a time of separation and independence enable and constrain students’ understandings of their own emerging adulthood. Keywords: College Transition; Emerging Adulthood; Facebook; Relational Dialectics.

  College is a transitional period of development typified by newfound freedom and independence, exposure to new ideas, new ways of thinking, and diverse student populations. Researchers (McAdams et al., 2006; Schwartz, Coˆte´, & Arnett, 2005) have shown that identity development, self-exploration, and social experimentation, are all developmentally distinctive aspects of emerging adulthood, especially for students who leave home, go to college, and move closer to becoming adults. These scholars have also asserted that traditionally, college has been a time to leave old communities behind and begin the task of creating an adult identity. 

  However, over the past 7 years, the influence of Internet social networking has radically altered the college experience as the phenomenon of Facebook has dominated as a way for young people to connect and communicate with one another (Peluchette & Karl, 2010). The term ‘‘emerging adulthood’’ is the recent phrase parent–child researchers use to describe the age group between the years 18 and 25 (Arnett, 2000; McAdams et al., 2006). Our normative expectations for emerging adults in the United States include a move toward independence and self-sufficiency. This life period is accompanied by an increased concern for privacy, often creating new struggles in relationships with parents. Facebook’s role in shaping this transitional period of emerging adulthood represents a unique area of study for communication scholars. Few researchers have sought to understand how students communicatively negotiate the complex web of old and new relationships in the age of Facebook, yet researchers have suggested that computer-mediated communication can support the development of interpersonal relationships (Ellison, Heino, & Gibbs, 2006). 

  Given that college has traditionally been defined as a time of separation and independence from old communities (McAdams et al., 2006), exploring how students construct and make sense of the possibilities for new senses of self when connected to ‘‘home’’ in such a unique way is an area ripe for communication research. Boyd and Ellison (2008) traced the history of social network sites back 7 years before Facebook, to the launch of SixDegrees.com in 1997. While this site enticed millions of users, most users did not have wide networks of friends who were online, and service closed in 2000. Early users of the site complained that they were not interested in meeting strangers, foreshadowing that a possible key to a successful social network site would be its functioning as a form of relatedness to those with which one already has some prior offline connection. Since 1997, hundreds of sites such as Friendster, LinkedIn, and MySpace have emerged as a way to connect and relate to others. 

  However, launched in 2004, Facebook has gradually become the leading site for college students. Within 3 years, Facebook was growing at three times the rate of MySpace and had over 7.5 million registered members at more than 2,000 U.S. colleges (Kirkpatrick, 2007). By 2011, Facebook had 750 million members worldwide (Swartz, 2011) and over half of those log on to Facebook daily (Eldon, 2011). In one study, U.S. college students reported using Facebook an average of 10 to 30 minutes daily (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). While scholars have explored how much time young adults spend using Facebook and why they use Facebook (Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009) we know less about how young adults experience the college transition on Facebook and how it enables and constrains their sense of self. In the current study ‘‘old life’’ represented the individuals’ ties and communities they left behind as they moved to college. ‘‘New life’’ signified the transition of establishing new connections within the college community and experience (i.e., new friends, roommates, city, etc.). Our goal in the present study was to understand how college students communicate to enact and make sense of self, others, and relationships during this time of change.

 College Students’ Use of Facebook 
  Spending time on social networking sites is part of the daily activities of most U.S. young adults. Some surveys have shown that college students in the U.S. use Facebook for social interaction in their close relationships in order to maintain friendships rather than to make new friends (Ellison et al., 2007), yet others reveal that half of young adult college students used Facebook to make new friends (Lenhart & Madden, 2007). While the first cohort of students who used Facebook for 4 years of college did not graduate until the spring of 2008, many of today’s younger college students have been Facebooking since as early as sixth grade. This makes the generation of today’s college students a particularly important sample to examine because they are connected to their past in a way previous generations never experienced. 

  As they move into their dorm rooms and wave goodbye to their parents, many students are simultaneously connected to hundreds of ‘‘friends’’ from home, friends who are communicating their experiences, feelings, excitements, and struggles in the same situations through Facebook. As online social networking has spread, numerous questions have emerged about its implications for today’s college students. Disclosure of information, cyberbullies, and risky behavior are all popular concerns raised in the mainstream media about the use of social networking sites (Koloff, 2008; Stone, 2007). 

  Scholars have examined the link between social networking sites and civic and political involvement (Park, Kee, & Valenzuela, 2009; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009), students’ education related use of Facebook (Selwyn, 2009), the characteristics of the typical college user (Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008) and why students posted information on their profile that would endanger their potential for future employment (Peluchette & Karl, 2010). Researchers have also demonstrated how technology is more than something used to quickly coordinate and schedule everyday events. For example, Ling and Yttri (2002) examined how the cell phone functions as a symbol in itself. One of their participants expressed ‘‘A mobile telephone is actually an expression of your personality’’ (p. 1). 

  This sentiment directly applies to social networking communication. Liu (2007) examined how the lists of interests (music, books, movies, etc.) on a social network profile demonstrate one’s culturally constrained sense of self. In other words, our interests communicate who we are and what we stand for and these statements are ‘‘performed’’ through the profile. However, our interests and desires do not exist in a vacuum, but are shaped by the people with whom we interact. Thus, in the present study we sought to understand the interactions college students describe as they negotiate the ties to their old and new communities during the transition to college.(paper代写)

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