Uses and Effects of MySpace among Christian Teens and Young Adult

Abstract

In 2008, MySpace was one of the world's top Internet destinations. Behind only Google and Yahoo in Internet traffic in America, it was the most popular social networking site (SNS) with some 300,000 profiles being added daily. Although MySpace would soon be supplanted in the SNS world by the likes of Facebook and Twitter, it still has over 50 million unique users each month and over 300,000 video views monthly. Research performed during the period of its height in popularity is still valuable not only for historical perspective, but also for what it teaches about the habits of SNS users today. This study of the uses and effects of MySpace among Christian teens and young adults (n = 242), computes four composite variables: a Positive Effects Variable (PEV), a Negative Effects Variable (NEV), an Expressing Faith Variable (EFV), and a Friends and Family Variable (FFV), in order to consider interaction effects among various categories such as, age, gender, church attendance frequency, MySpace use experience and frequency, number of MySpace friends, etc. The results provide important insights for those who wish to maintain and promote a group identity through SNS platforms.