Communication Technology and Friendship During the Transition from High School to College
This chapter examines the use of the Internet by young people to maintain social ties after they move from high school to college. It finds that when young adults move away from home to go to college, technology-mediated communication retards the natural decline in social relationships which young adults often experience as a result of the move. However, this effect varies by type of technology. Even though speaking by phone with a partner is a much stronger predictor of a close personal relationship than Internet-based communication, the latter is most likely to help young people maintain relationships. However, the chapter argues that this effect of communication on psychological closeness does not reflect intrinsic properties of the communication media but instead the marketing and regulatory decisions in the United States which lower the cost of Internet communications.
