'Sometimes it's harder to speak out things': How first year New Zealand tertiary students use informal online communication to help solve significant problems
Fleur Piper
School of Communication Studies, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Barbara MacDonald
School of Communication Studies, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
PP: 135 - 142
Abstract
The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate how first year domestic and international students at a New Zealand university use informal online communication to help solve significant personal problems.
These students belong to the generation identified as 'digital natives' (Prensky, 2001) and represent a group whose expectations and experience is profoundly shaped by digital technology (Mollgaard, 2007). The majority of students in the study chose to share their problem with a friend or family member. Typically, these problems were most often about relationship and personal issues. The reasons for choosing to share online included convenience, location and also a desire to reduce feelings of vulnerability.
For most respondents, the impact of this sharing was positive; however, only one fifth reported that the relationship got closer. While no gender differences emerged in the domestic students' use of the online medium, the males' responses to the research questionnaire tended to be more limited in detail. International male students were more likely to report that no change had occurred in their relationship as a result of seeking online help. Three quarters of the students reported that using online support contributed to some extent to the resolution of their problems because of the emotional support provided.
Keywords
help-seeking, online, Internet, digital natives, tertiary students, personal problems
Article Text
When personal difficulties occur in our lives, there is usually a desire to share authentically part or all of our experience with at least one other person. Frequently, this sharing is associated with face-to-face interactions; however, people also choose to share their problems informally using the computer as their medium to seek social support and resolution (Weiser, 2001). While studies confirm that social interaction is the most popular use of the Internet and that these encounters are likely to be as rewarding as face-to-face interactions (Joinson, 2003), few studies show how people use computer mediated communication informally to work through significant problems.
In online help-seeking a person is likely to prefer and/or benefit from features such as increased access to support, the diminishment of roles and status, freedom to reflect more on responses, and the writing process itself (Rochlen, Zack & Speyer, 2004). The strategic choice of mediated communication when revealing a negative issue is also significant because this medium allows greater control over the presentation of self (O'Sullivan, 2000). For depth in sharing to occur it is most likely that the level of communication will be hyperpersonal, which Walther (1996, p. 17) states sometimes 'surpassed the level of affection and emotion of parallel face-to-face communication.' Levels of self-disclosure are also likely to increase due to the disinhibition experienced (Suler, 2004). Previously established understanding and trust are also vital components when self-disclosing to a person already known.
The focus of this descriptive study is how online technology is used to informally work through problems faced by those termed 'digital natives' (Prensky, 2001). This group are those born after 1980 whose educational, social and cultural expectations and needs have been profoundly shaped by digital technology (Mollgaard, 2007). We were interested in who they turn to and how the online medium is utilised to increase relatedness and enhance self-understanding (Civin, 2000 in Griffiths, 2004). The study also investigated the impact on their relationships and perceptions of whether online support helped resolve their problem.
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