Young, online and connected : the impact of everyday Internet use of Dutch adolescents on social cohesion

Adolescents spend a significant part of their day online on different activities. Many of them use the Internet to connect with social networks and for entertainment. The negative consequences of adolescents’ internet use seem to dominate both popular and, to a lesser extent, academic discourse. Using large-scale, nationally representative data, this dissertation provides insight into the balance between the positive and negative outcomes by investigating how adolescents’ everyday internet use is related to social cohesion.

Adolescents use the internet as a tool to maintain social relationships in the current networked society. Concerns about adolescents distancing themselves from others and society because of their online behaviours appear an exaggeration; the studies have instead shown that adolescents are involved in a variety of social and societal activities online.

In other words, adolescents are not only connected to the internet, but they use it to be better connected tot heir social networks and society.